A Study of Biodegradable Oil as Transformer Insulating Material

In power transformers, liquid insulating materials are used as cooling agent and electrical insulator. Currently, mineral oil is the most commonly used liquid insulation material in power transformers. However, mineral oil has some drawbacks in its characteristics such as a deprived biodegradability and high flammability. On the other hand, mineral oil is a very good insulating material for power transformer and has very good electrical features. Researchers are presently looking new sorts of insulating materials, which are more environmentally friendly. The further improvement of power transformer oil is biodegradable oil and the focus is on vegetable oils. This paper investigates about mix of corn oil and palm kernel oil as an option to mineral oil. Different characteristics of mix corn oil and palm kernel oil such as breakdown voltage, aging process and moisture content were measured according to standards and then the results were compared to the characteristics of mineral oil. It was shown that the mixture of corn oil and palm kernel oil has the same or greater characteristics compared to mineral oil.