A critical review of plant-based insulating fluids for transformer: 30-year development

As a non-renewable resource, mineral oil has been re-evaluated for its value and suitability as the coolant and insulator in transformers because of its environmental unfriendliness, fire hazards, and operating efficiency dissatisfaction. As a result, alternative dielectric liquids meeting the deman...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Renewable & sustainable energy reviews 2021-05, Vol.141, p.110783, Article 110783
Main Authors: Shen, Zijia, Wang, Feipeng, Wang, Zhiqing, Li, Jian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodegradability
Dielectric fluids
Insulating materials
Natural ester
Plant oil
Transformer
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:As a non-renewable resource, mineral oil has been re-evaluated for its value and suitability as the coolant and insulator in transformers because of its environmental unfriendliness, fire hazards, and operating efficiency dissatisfaction. As a result, alternative dielectric liquids meeting the demands for more reliable, safer, and cleaner energy has been a critical need. Plant-based insulating fluids, non-toxic to the environment and ultimately biodegradable, have been flowing into the mainstream for achieving cost efficiencies, performance advantages, and enhancing safety. With more than 20 years of field experience, plant-based oils are now employed in more than 600,000 transformers worldwide, and have been established an enviable performance track record. Far from being just a mineral oil replacement, but more significantly, plant-based oils have filled a gap in some specific application scenarios where mineral oils fail to satisfy the fire-safety and environmental standards. This article reviews the research status of plant-based insulating fluids for transformer, including both challenges and outlook circa 2020. Plant-based oils have many inherent advantages over mineral oil, but also have numerous and unique challenges. •Research for plant-based oils as alternative insulating fluids has been advancing during the past 30 years.•Current status and development prospects of plant-based insulating fluids for transformer are summarized.•Offer an insight into the key challenges and future perspectives about further promotion of plant-based insulating oils.
ISSN:1364-0321
1879-0690
DOI:10.1016/j.rser.2021.110783