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Surfactant can be used to form stable oil-in-water emulsion and reduce the viscosity of viscous crude oil. The mechanism of viscosity reduction was studied for nonionic surfactant alkylphenol polyoxyethylene (9) ether (APE-9) compound systems. The results showed that the viscosity reduction of viscous crude oil by water-insoluble alkylphenol polyoxyethylene (4) ether (APE-4) was higher than sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS, anionic surfactant) and dodecyl dimethyl betaine (BS-12, amphoteric surfactant) in the binary compound system. The viscosity further decreased by ethanolamine. The interfacial tension (IFT) study showed that when the reduction in IFT was the highest, the viscosity reduction was the highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that the viscosity greatly reduction of viscous crude oil can improve the exploitation and promote the fluidity. We studied the effects and the mechanism of viscosity reduction of viscous crude oil emulsion after introducing the ternary compound of sulfonate-straight chain alcohol-alkaline as the viscosity reducer. Results showed that the best emulsifying performance can be achieved using 5% 1-pentanol. 0.2% of Na2CO3 and DEA shows the strongest emulsification ability of the O/W emulsion. The use of AOS, straight chain alcohol and petroleum carboxylate resolves diffusion on the oil-water interface, which can form a dense surfactant of single molecular layer to reduce the interfacial tension and prevent the phase change of the emulsification. When the mass fraction of AOS, Na2CO3, DEA and 1-pentanol were 0.2%, 0.25%, 0.2% and 5% respectively, the viscous crude oil would achieve the best effect of viscosity reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]