A Review on Physicochemical and Electrical Performance of Vegetable Oil-Based Nanofluids for High Voltage Equipment

Abstract

• Transformer operation majorly sustained by liquid dielectrics; aids insulation and heat transfer. • Nanofluid stability is achieved by surface modification and presence of surfactant. • Dielectric loss occurs in polar methyl ester due to both polarization and conduction processes. • Fast electronic capture model, potential well model and shallow trap theory explain breakdown voltage mechanism in nanofluid. • Enhancing nature of nanoparticles on pour point, flash point, viscosity and dielectric properties of ester insulating fluid. Fault in high voltage equipment has a powerful monetary repercussion to both power utilities and users, the sustainability of this expensive asset is vulnerable to the state, quality and performance of the liquid insulation. Mineral oil has been the most popularly used liquid insulation in oil filled power equipment and has been serving this purpose over the years. Due to the increase in energy demand and environmental factors, the quest for an alternative insulating oil to replace the well-known mineral oil is of great interest. This has led to the advent of vegetable oil which has not been generally accepted to be used as insulating oil for power transformer due to some of its rebuttal properties. However, the obstacles have been mitigated by addition of nanoparticles to natural methyl ester to give nanofluid. This paper reviews the chemical, physical, electrical properties of natural methyl esters from vegetable oil and its nanofluids.