Abstract: With the decline of conventional crude oil production, the exploitation and application of heavy oil has gradually attracted attention. However, heavy oil with high density, large viscosity and difficult mining is the problem faced by heavy oil production. There are many ways to reduce the viscosity of heavy oil, among which upgrading visbreaking reaction and non-upgrading visbreaking reaction are two important ways to reduce the viscosity of heavy oil. The latter include heating and viscosity reduction, thinning and viscosity reduction, and chemical viscosity reducing and so on. There are two methods for upgrading visbreaking reaction, namely mild thermal cracking and aquathermolysis. The aquathermolysis viscosity reduction technique is a more efficient method of viscosity reduction based on thermal cracking. Under the appropriate reaction conditions and suitable catalyst conditions, the viscosity of heavy crude oil can be greatly reduced, which is a heavy oil mining technology with good application prospects.

Key words: Heavy oil, Viscosity, Density, Aquathermolysis

摘要： 随着常规原油产量下降，重质原油的开采和应用逐渐受到人们重视，但是重质原油密度高、黏度大、开采难度大是重质原油开采所面临的问题。重质原油的降黏方式有很多种，其中改质降黏和非改质降黏是重质原油降黏的两种重要方式，非改质降黏技术有加热降黏、掺稀降黏、化学降黏等，改质降黏有两种方法，分别为水热裂解和轻度热裂化。水热裂解降黏技术是基于热裂化之上更高效的一种降黏方法，在适当的反应条件和适合的催化剂条件下，能显著降低重质原油的黏度，是一种应用前景较好的重质原油开采技术。

关键词: 重质原油, 黏度, 密度, 水热裂解