Study on parameters for the new closed heat-transfer material circulation visbreaking process

A new closed heat-transfer material circulation process was proponed to meet with the production needs of heavy oil, the heat-transfer material circulating path of the process was established between the hollow sucker rod and the insulation inner tube, the purpose of heating and visbreaking produced fluid was achieved through heat-transfer material recirculation. It has advantages of good performance in energy-saving, low operation cost and the measure of mass production can not be affected. In this paper, the parameters such as heat conductivity of heat insulation inner tube and pipe diameter, rod combinations etc were studied and optimized, and then the reasonable process parameters and combinations were recommended, the softened water was selected as the heat-transfer material; It was a good choice, less than 0.3 W/m?K ,for the heat conductivity of heat insulation inner tube; The purpose of reducing circulating water pressure drop, increasing the greatest amount of oil and improving heating and visbreaking effect was achieved by selecting ?42 rod combinations, 22 mm heat insulation inner tube diameter and 3 mm wall thickness. In future, the technology should be systematically researched at visbreaking process of super-heavy oil, applied range shoud be developed and application scale expanded.