Investigation of Pungamia Oil Properties Using Spectroscopy for Transformer Applications

Abstract

Traditionally, the insulating oil’s characteristics are measured by analyzing various properties such as electrical, chemical, and physical properties. Because these methods are lacking accuracy, the spectroscopy analysis has been incorporated with conventional testing for assessing the critical properties of proposed non-edible Pungamia oil (PP) as a biodegradable insulating oil for transformer. The results are evident that PP oil’s critical characteristics are meeting the standard requirement as an insulating material for the transformer applications. DGA analysis illustrates that the combustible gas emission on mineral oil is higher than that of PP samples. From FTIR and UV–VIS analyses it is observed that the thermal withstanding ability of PP is well comparable to that of mineral oil. SEM analysis revealed that the deterioration rate of cellulose-insulating material immersed in PP is lower than that immersed in mineral oil. XRD analysis proved that crystallite reduction in mineral oil immersed cellulose-insulating material is higher than the ester oil. Abbreviations: CH4: methane; C2H2: acetylene; C2H4: ethylene; C2H6: ethane; CO: carbon monoxide; CO2: carbon dioxide; DGA: dissolved gas analysis; FTIR: Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy; H2: Hydrogen; MO: mineral oil; NEO: natural ester oil; PO: Pungamia oil; SEM: scanning electron microscope; UV: Vis-Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy; XRD: X-ray diffraction analysis