Synthesis and mechanism analysis of a new oil soluble viscosity reducer for flow improvement of Chenping heavy oil

Abstract

Oil soluble viscosity reducers have gradually attracted the attention of petrochemical research due to their cleanliness and high efficiency. Considering the high viscosity and non-Newtonian fluid properties of Chenping heavy oil found in China, a series of new oil soluble viscosity reducers with different proportions and molecular weights were prepared by free radical polymerization using octadecyl acrylate, 2-allylphenol and N-methylolacrylamide as monomers. The viscosity reducer was applied to different types of heavy oil and found that it exhibited a better effect on heavy oils with high asphaltene content. The test of rheological behavior of heavy oil with additive was performed at wide range of shear rate (3–90 s−1) and temperature range (30–100 °C). The apparent viscosity reduction rate was up to 70.09%, which was better than the industrially relevant ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymer under the same test condition. In addition, the effect of viscosity reducers on the components of heavy oil and the energy change of the system simulated by molecular dynamics simultaneously was investigated. The consistency of the simulated and experimental results show that the effect of viscosity reduction closely related to the crystallization process of wax and the viscosity reducer can reconstruct the surface structure of asphaltene and diminish the connection of benzene ring.