Development of palm-based neopentyl glycol diester as dielectric fluid and its thermal aging performance

Abstract

Development of palm-based neopentyl glycol diester as dielectric fluid and its thermal aging performance ABSTRACTThe potential of palm-based neopentyl glycol diester as dielectric insulating fluid was investigated. The details of the transesterification of high oleic palm oil methyl ester (POME) with neopentyl glycol (NPG) with the final product yield of more than 90 wt% of NPG diester were discussed. The thermal aging performance of NPG diester was compared with conventional mineral insulating oil at 90, 110 and 130 °C. This paper focused mainly in the effects of aging to chemical, physical and electrical properties of NPG diester. Apart from being fully biodegradable and non-toxic, the synthesized diesters exhibited high flashpoint and the breakdown voltage was comparable to mineral oil. The result indicated that throughout the aging period, NPG diester exhibited lower acid value than mineral oil and no significant change in viscosity was observed. The study on mechanical properties of insulating paper aged in NPG diester shows higher tensile strength than paper aged in mineral oil. The synthesized esters have shown great potential to be used as transformer oil.

Effects of Molecular Structure on the Physical, Chemical, and Electrical Properties of Ester‐Based Transformer Insulating Liquids

“…The condenser was then connected to the vacuum system that consisted of a relief valve, an accumulator, and a vacuum trap. The experimental setup and details of the method were given by Raof et al (). According to the specified molar ratio, known amounts of methyl ester, alcohol, and catalyst were added into the reactor.…”

“…For determining the resultant synthesized ester composition, the samples were analyzed using gas chromatography (GC). The sample preparation methods were identical to those previously described by Yunus et al () and Raof et al (). The GC capillary column (HT5, 12 m long, 0.53 mm ID and 0.15 μm film thickness) fitted with a capillary inlet system and a flame ionization detector was employed.…”

“…Because different materials and products correspond to different boiling points and retention time, there was a slight change in the oven temperature setting for each ester. For C18 esters, similar oven settings to those of Raof et al () were used. The oven temperature was set firstly at 80°C, held for 3 min, then increased at 6°C min −1 to 340°C, and held for another 6 min (Raof et al, ).…”

“…For C18 esters, similar oven settings to those of Raof et al () were used. The oven temperature was set firstly at 80°C, held for 3 min, then increased at 6°C min −1 to 340°C, and held for another 6 min (Raof et al, ). For C8/C10 and C12 esters, the oven temperature was set firstly at 35°C, held for 5 min, then increased at 6°C min −1 to 280°C, and then held for another 6 min.…”

“…There are several studies in the literature reporting the application of polyol ester as a dielectric fluid (Hof et al, ; Kanoh et al, , ; Qiu and Brown, ; Raof et al, ). However, specifically for transformer application, some of the studies have focused more on the physical and chemical characteristics of the esters, such as the viscosity, flash point, pour point, moisture content, and acidity.…”