Nowadays the frequently-used proppants are mainly three kinds, which are quartz sand, fracturing sand, and resin coated sand.

Quartz sand is widely used because of its low cost and easy-pumping, but quartz sand has some shortcomings such as low intensity, insufficient sphericity, and low conductivity. These shortcomings make the quartz sand not suitable for deep and high pressure wells.

Resin coated sand has a better sphericity, corrosion resistance, and conductivity. But the quality guarantee period of resin coated sand is short while the cost is high, so it’s hard to popularize this kind of proppant for we all take cost as a very important factor when doing things.

Fracturing sand is made of bauxite. With the advantages of high intensity, perfect sphericity, corrosion resistance, thermo resistance, high pressure resistance, and competitive price, fracturing sand become more and more widely used in the oil and gas fields.

It has been found that using fracturing sand can improve the output of oil and gas wells for about 30%-50%. Fracturing sand can also extend the service life of oil and gas wells, making it a key material for hydraulic fracturing process.

The main row material of fracturing sand is bauxite, and China abounds in bauxite. The distribution of bauxite is highly concentrated in the following four provinces: Shanxi for 41.6%, Guizhou for 21.1%, Henan for 16.7%, and Guangxi for 15.5%; totally occupy 90.9% of all bauxite resource in China. Made-in-China fracturing sand, with its high quality, has gradually replaced other common proppant and entered into American market. So far, China fracturing sand has made up for 13% of Northern American proppant market, with totally business value of 3 billion every year.