Electrical and Physicochemical Properties of Persea Americana Oil as an Alternative Transformer Insulation Oil

This paper reports the investigation of Persea americana oil (PAO) as an alternative replacement of mineral insulating oil (MIO) in electrical insulation and especially in high voltage power transformers. Persea americana oil has several advantages that recommend both its production and usage over that of MIO. It has high biodegradability, higher fire safety guarantee, non-toxicity and is renewable. Experiments to investigate the key physicochemical (i.e water content, viscosity, acidity, pour point, oxidation stability flash point...) and electrical (dielectric strength, dissipation factor) properties of PAO were conducted. The Ageing characteristics (dissipation factor, resistivity, total acidity) were also explored after accelerated ageing using open beaker method. Food grade extra virgin and refined Persea americana oil was used for this investigation. For comparison, the corresponding properties of mineral insulation oil (MIO) in the same experimental conditions were also measured. The obtained results show that the average electrical and physicochemical properties of PAO meet the IEC and IEEE specifications for new natural liquid insulation oils. The obtained results show that the average AC breakdown voltage of PAO is 74kV and that of MIO is 65kV. This may suggest that Persea americana oil can be used as an alternative transformer liquid insulation.