Use Palm Oil as Alternative with Insulation Oil in High Voltage Equipment

Transformers have traditionally used mineral oil for cooling and insulation .The better compound material has to produce with good electrical and chemical characteristics. However, recent evidence has shown the deficiencies with these fluids where they have low properties especially flash and fire point and most importantly low dielectric breakdown voltage. The most serious of these shortcomings is the inability to meet up with the health and environmental laws. Besides, they are not organic and hence not biodegradable. In this paper, natural palm oil and its derivatives have been studied in attempt to find an environmental friendly insulating fluid. Samples such as crude and refined palm oils were electrically and chemically tested and comparisons were made with the mineral oil. Electrical tests such as the breakdown voltage, resistivity and dissipation factor were conducted. Besides that, chemical properties such as pour point, flash point, water content, density, kinematic viscosity, dissolved of gases and moisture content of the compound were also being investigated. Results from the laboratory studies have shown that the natural palm oil has better electrical and chemical characteristics as compared to the existing mineral oil for transformer insulation.