Effect of laser irradiation on a heavy crude oil sample: Changes in viscosity and implications for oil recovery and transport

High-viscosity oil has attracted people's attention as unconventional energy. Hence, the viscosity reduction played a significant role in pipeline transportation. In this paper, a 532 nm laser was employed to reduce the viscosity. Both voltage and temperature will change under laser irradiation due to the thermal effect. Moreover, the variation in the voltage and temperature was studied without laser irradiation in order to research the influence of laser irradiation on experimental results with different bias currents. An exponential function was used to fitted waveforms of falling voltage in order to study the effect of laser irradiation on liquid. The relationships among the voltage, temperature, and viscosity were also studied under laser irradiation. Particles in the crude oil absorbed energy from laser, which led to the liquid conductivity change. Due to laser irradiation, the temperature of the liquid will rise, resulting in the viscosity change. Laser technology will provide a distinctive driving force for the viscosity reduction.