Flow improvement of Liaohe extraheavy oil with comb-type copolymers

Liaohe extraheavy oil is a kind of special crude oil with high paraffin and asphaltene contents and a pour point of up to 60°C. To improve its flowability, comb‐type poly(maleic alkylamide‐co‐α‐octadecene) copolymers (MACs) with various amidation ratios were synthesized and used. Model oils containing paraffin mixtures with the same average carbon number to Liaohe extraheavy oil with and without asphaltene were prepared to explore the effect of the MACs on paraffin crystallization and asphaltene dispersion, respectively. We found that MACs reduced the yield stress, changed the size and shape of the paraffin crystals, and obstructed the paraffin crystallization for both model oils and extraheavy Liaohe oils as observed by rheology, polarizing light microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry. The MACs seemed to be an ideal candidate for improving the flowability of Liaohe extraheavy oils. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40082.