The viscosity reducers exhibit dispersing ability for resin in heavy oil

Abstract

The viscosity of the heavy oil was closely correlated with its own resin content by comparing three types of crude oil. In this paper, two novel viscosity reducers with characteristic groups in molecular structures were synthesized for Xinjiang heavy oil, namely viscosity reducer 1 (VR-1) and viscosity reducer 2 (VR-2), both of them showed the better viscosity reduction effect on Xinjiang heavy oil and VR-2 was better than VR-1. The measurement results of ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer and scanning electron microscope showed that the VR-2 had better separation effect for resin than the VR-1. By analyzing the infrared spectrum results of resin molecule, it could be seen that the resin molecule contained more heteroatoms, which could more easily form the stronger hydrogen bonding with VR-2 with more polar groups to result the better resin dispersion effect. Hence, the phenomenon that VR-1 was not as good as VR-2 in improving fluidity of Xinjiang heavy oil was explained.