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Nickel nanoparticles was supported on sawdust carbon via a hydrothermal method followed by calcination and used as a catalyst for heavy crude oil upgrading experiment. The performance of catalyst on catalytic pyrolysis of heavy crude oil was studied by laboratory experiments. The experimental results showed that under the reaction conditions of 350 °C, 30 min and 0.1 wt% catalyst, the viscosity reduction ratio of heavy crude oil was 74.50%, the viscosity can be reduced from 16,000 mPa·s (50 °C) to 4080 mPa·s, and the net efficiency of catalyst was 14.37%. Analysis results suggested that the viscosity reduction of heavy crude oil was caused by the destruction of structure of resin in the process of the catalytic pyrolysis reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]