Development of Ester Oil Based Nanofluid as Liquid Insulation for Power Transformers

Abstract

The conventional mineral oil is the most widely used insulating oil in transformers. The reason for its wide usage is its easy availability and good insulating and cooling properties. However, with these superior qualities, the usage of mineral oil poses some serious threats like the depletion of its resources, its non bio-degradibilty and high inflammability. Due to these issues, there has been a continuous increase in research for finding suitable alternative insulating fluids which can possess comparable insulating and cooling properties and can also eliminate the risk of threats posed by the usage of mineral oil. Vegetable oils are gaining popularity nowadays as alternatives to conventional mineral oil for transformers. Also known as natural ester oils, the dielectric properties of these oils are very much comparable to the mineral oil and in many cases better than the conventional mineral oil. For example, the dielectric strength of vegetable oils is generally better than the mineral oil. However, in a few qualities like total acidity and oxidation stability, these vegetable oils lack behind the conventional mineral oil. The latest trend in research these days is to further enhance these qualities of vegetable oils by dispersing suitable nanomaterials in them in order to enable the researchers to synthesize 3rd generation insulating fluids for transformers and to increase the transformer voltage ratings. In the field of nanomaterials, a recent in-trend nanomaterial, i.e., graphene oxide, has created a boom in research. Graphene oxide is constantly emerging as an attractive alternative to various other materials due to its low cost and large-scale production. Graphene oxide is currently becoming a basis for exploring innovative opportunities in the fields of emerging trends of research. While being extensively researched in the fields of medicine, chemistry and physics, the role of graphene oxide in insulation systems still remains unexplored.