Research Trends on Reducing Viscosity of Viscous Crude Oils by Chemical Methods

The compositions and the viscosity forming mechanism of viscous crude oils were discussed. The research trends on reducing viscosity by chemical methods including viscosity reduction with emulsifying agents, oil-soluble viscosity reducers, catalytic aquathermal cracking and viscosity reduction by microbe were reviewed. The problems existing in viscosity reduction by using emulsifying viscosity reducers and oil soluble viscosity reducers were discussed. It was pointed out that research idea of oil-soluble viscosity reducers for viscous crude oil was to synthesize new effective oil-soluble viscosity reducers with fused ring-aromatic group, polar/active surface group or fluorinated active surface group in order to increase the viscosity reducing effect.