Properties of Ester Liquid Midel 7131 as an Alternative Liquid to Mineral Oil for Transformers

H. Borsi, E. Gockenbach
Division of High Voltage Engineering, Schering-Institute, University of Hannover Callinstr. 25 A, D 30167 Hannover, Germany

Abstract: The combination of a solid and a liquid insulation is the most frequently used insulating system in high voltage apparatus, where components have to be insulated and loss heat has to be dissipated. The requirements on the liquid part of the insulating system are not only the electric and dielectric performance but also the performance regarding environmental requirements and dehydration capability as well as low in flammability. The use of ester liquid Midel 7131, partly or totally replacing mineral oil, reduces the risk of environmental pollution, increases the lifetime of the component and reduces the fire risk. In distribution transformers Midel 7131 has been used for several years with very good experience and therefore the manufacturer are encouraged to use Midel 7131 also in power transformers even if the viscosity of the new liquid is higher than the viscosity of mineral oil. Due to larger dimensions of power transformers in comparison to distribution transformers special consideration is necessary. Some results concerning the electric and dielectric behaviour of Midel 7131 will be presented and pure Midel 7131 as well as mixtures with mineral oil fulfil the requirements on the electrical performance of liquid insulating materials.

insulated transformers and a tank rupture due to winding failures. Synthetic liquids like Midel 7131 may be used as insulating liquid for the whole transformers, or only for the impregnation of the solid paper insulating material or as a mixture with mineral oil. Therefore it is important that in the case of a mixture the two components are completely miscible at any ratio. Furthermore the electrical and dielectric properties of the ester liquid and its mixture with mineral oil should be similar to mineral oil. Only one parameter, the relative permittivity r, of ester liquid is higher than those of mineral oils. Within the paper some investigations on ester liquid Midel 7131and mixtures of Midel 7131 with mineral oil are presented in order to show the applicability of the ester liquid and its mixture with mineral oil and the performance of the different kind of mixtures.

WATER SATURATION
Figure 1 shows the water saturation limit of the investigated liquids in a temperature range of 0C to 100C. The water solubility of ester is much higher than that of mineral oil, followed by the mixture of mineral oil with 20% ester liquid and silicone fluid. The difference in the behaviour of silicone and ester liquids compared to mineral oil can be explained by the difference in water absorption of these liquids. Ester or silicone liquid can take up water in chemically bounded and in dissolved form, while in mineral oil, water is only dissolved [3, 4, 5]. The water saturation limit of esters is more than 50 times higher than that of mineral oils. This behaviour allows at the same temperature a much higher amount of humidity within the insulation system or in case of a sealed system a higher absorption of humidity of the liquids from the solid insulating component like paper.

INTRODUCTION
Due to the wide availability and low cost, mineral-based transformer oils are the most widely used electrical insulating liquids in the world today - and have been for the past century [1]. Since the mid eighty other synthetic liquids like silicone, ester, perchlorethylene etc. have been used as insulating liquid for transformers. They have good dielectric, heat transfer and aging properties, but due to the relatively high cost these synthetic liquids have been only used in special transformer applications [2]. Three disadvantages of mineral oil, the very high sensitivity on moisture, the inflammability and the very high environmental impact, can be compensated by the ester liquids due to their environmental friendly performance, the non inflammability and the very low sensitivity on moisture. The environmental impact prevent the use of mineral oil filled transformers in some places. The inflammability of ester liquids allows the installation of these transformers at places, where high requirements on the safety and fire protection exist. Power transformers contain usually several tons of insulating liquid that may cause a long lasting pool fire in case of mineral oil

INVESTIGATED PARAMETERS
Within the investigations the physical, electrical, dielectric and aging properties are evaluated and used, according to the IEC standards, to classify the transformer oils concerning the quality and life time of the insulation system. All in [1, 2] listed properties are important, but some have a special merit for the

Breakdown voltage UB

characterisation of an insulating liquid used in transformers, especially if they vary significantly with the oil purity and composition as well as with temperature and electric field. The most important properties are the electrical strength, followed by the dissipation factor (tan ), water content and the neutralisation number [3,4, 6]. The water saturation level in mineral oil and mixtures of mineral oil with Midel 7131 change depending on the mixture ratio. Therefore the investigations were made with dry insulating liquids and with more or less saturated insulating liquids. The following figures give the amount of water in absolute values (ppm) for different mixtures. The water content vary between 10 and 40 ppm for the mineral oil, between 10 and 185 ppm for the mineral oil plus 10% ester liquid, between 10 and 365 ppm for the mineral oil plus 20% ester liquid and between 10 and 1120 ppm for mineral oil plus 50% ester liquid at a temperature of 20 C. These figures can be evaluated from Fig. 1 and covers the range between a dry insulating liquid and a more or less saturated insulating liquid.
10000 1000 100 WL [ppm]
Mineral oil

of Midel are investigated and depicted by Figure 2.

80
kV
2.5 mm

Mineral oil Mineral oil + 20% Ester liquid Limit for unaged oil Limit for aged oil

60
U1

40 U2 20 10 0
0

20

R1 60 R2 80 100 120 140 Relative water content Wrel (%)

160

Fig.2: Breakdown voltage versus insulating liquid relative water content for mineral oil and the mixture of mineral oil with 20% ester liquid

The breakdown voltage for pure mineral oil shows the well known behaviour that with increasing relative humidity the breakdown voltage decreases. The function is non linear which means that with low relative water content the breakdown voltage does not change too much and also with high relative water content the breakdown voltage keeps constant at a very low value. The consequence for the use of mineral oil in transformers is to keep the liquid as dry as possible in order to have a good electrical performance. With a mixture of mineral oil and 20% ester liquid Midel 7131 the clear line does not any more exist. The spread of the breakdown voltage is much higher and it is not possible to draw a curve. Anyhow the breakdown voltage as a function of the relative water content can be expressed as a dotted area in Fig. 2. Even if the general behaviour of the blend is somewhat similar to mineral oil it should be taken into account, that at the same relative water content the absolute amount of water in the blend is much higher compared to the pure mineral oil because the saturation level of the blend is higher. Assuming a given fixed amount of water within the insulation of a transformer the blend will have at the same temperature a higher breakdown voltage and therefore a better electrical performance compared to a pure mineral oil insulated system. For the same reason the breakdown voltage of the mixtures is less temperature-dependent than those of the pure mineral oil. The ageing behaviour of mineral oil and the mixtures with Midel 7131 as function of the temperature is shown in Fig. 3 together with the required breakdown voltage for new mineral oil according to VDE [7]. At the relevant temperature of 20 C all investigated mixtures, unaged or aged, have a higher breakdown voltage than unused mineral oil.

10 1 3.7E-3 3.5E-3 3.3E-3

Silicone fluid Mineral oil + 20% Ester Ester liquid

3.1E-3

2.9E-3 1/T [1/K]

2.7E-3

20

30

60 T [C]

100

Fig. 1: Water saturation limit of different liquid for the temperature range between 0 C and 100 C

From the high saturation level of Midel 7131 it can be assumed that the amount of water can be high but the relative humidity content is still very low, because the relative humidity is given by the ratio of the absolute amount of water to the saturation amount of water at the same temperature.

Breakdown voltage
The most important and therefore most often checked parameter of a liquid insulation is the breakdown voltage according to IEC 60296. The behaviour of the breakdown voltage during the complete service time is important for the reliability and availability of the insulated component. Therefore the breakdown behaviour for different relative moisture contents of mineral oil and a mixture of mineral oil with 20 percent

80 kV 60 Breakdown voltage 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 20 60 Temperature 90 C

0% unaged 0% aged 10% unaged 10% aged 20% unaged 20% aged 50% unaged 50% aged

Limit of new oils under IEC 296 or DIN VDE 0370

this procedure the risk of bubble formation when desorption of water from cellulose increases the local concentration of gases in the liquid. The water within an insulation system of liquid and paper is not equal distributed in the two insulating components. The most amount of water is in the paper in the range of % and only a small part is in the liquid in the range of ppm. An example is shown in Fig, 4 at a temperature of 20 C for three different liquids, mineral oil, silicon liquid and Midel 7131.
10

WPaper (%)

Fig.3: Breakdown voltage of new and aged mixtures of ester liquid and mineral oil. The only liquid whose breakdown voltage is below the limit for new mineral oil is the aged pure mineral oil which shows clearly the reasonable requirement for the breakdown voltage of new mineral oil. All other investigated liquid combinations show a better electrical performance. Further investigations have shown, that a mixture with ester liquid is beneficial for aged mineral oil as well as when both components are aged together. This aspect can be very helpful when retrofilling service-aged mineral oil filled transformers with liquid mixtures. Another important factor is the breakdown behaviour of the cellulose that is immersed in the liquid. The investigations with cellulose PSP 3010 shows that in all cases the mixtures perform better than the pure mineral oil. Also the aging of the cellulose is lowered by the application of Midel 7131 what may be traced back to the lower generation of acids during aging.

1
Ester liquid Silicon liquid Mineral oil

0.1 1

10

WLiquid [ppm]

100

1000

Fig. 4: Moisture equilibrium of different liquids - cellulose paper at 20C

Water in insulating liquid

The water in the liquid can be originate from air moisture in the case of open-breather transformer or oil-conservator types, and as a by-product of oxidation reactions taking place in the liquid and the thermal decomposition of cellulose-based solid insulating materials. The liquid in a transformer becomes increasingly contaminated as the transformer ages in service. Contaminants include particular debris from thermal, oxidative, or electrical degradation of oil or solid insulation. The amount of absorbed furans depends on the partition coefficients at given temperature and the humidity in the paper. At lower temperature, the absorption of furans is higher and will be enhanced by a higher amount of absorbed water. Absorbed water can be released to the oil from the cellulose insulation during thermal excursions, and product water can be formed by cellulose degradation during service ageing. Water in mineral oil transformers also brings through

The curves show the situation when the water in the oil equilibrates with the water retained in the paper insulation of the transformer. There is no significant difference between the silicone liquid and the mineral oil, because the moisture content of the liquid is the same for the investigated temperature (20C). At the same moisture content in the liquid the resulting moisture content in the paper is much lower using ester liquid due to the high water saturation limit of ester liquid. From that it can assumed again that the use of ester liquid will reduce the water content in the paper under equilibrium condition and at the same amount of total water content within the insulation system.

Gassing behaviour of the insulating liquids at thermal stress

For the evaluation of the performance of liquids it is also important to know the behaviour of the liquid under service condition and at the start of a fault. Insulation damages during operation are normally accompanied by gas production and this can cause partial discharges activities (PD). The produced gas can either be dissolved in the liquid or free. The dissolved gases are usually detected with Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) methods. Undissolved gases, generally produced by large faults in a short time or by a small faults long time after gas saturation in the liquid, ascend on their way up into the Buchholz-Relay. The problem in the evaluation is the

fact, that the Buchholz-Relay gives an integral information of the gas production and does not allow to separate between a large amount of gas produced in a short time by a severe failure and a small amount of gas produced in a very long time. Therefore an electronic Buchholz-Relay was developed which is able to measure the total amount of gas as well as the gas generation rate [8]. The dissolved and undissolved gases have been used since many years for the determination of the insulation condition (over-voltage, over-current, temperature of the hottest spot, etc.). The behaviour of the different liquids as function of the temperature representing a local heating by a high current, is shown in Figure 5.
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 200 5 400 600 Temperature 15 25 Heating current 800 C 35 A 1000 50 Ester liquid Mineral oil + 20% Ester Mineral oil

high saturation limit of ester liquid, almost more than 50 times higher than that of mineral oil, reduces the moisture content in the solid insulation due to water diffusion into the liquid, and as a result, the dielectric properties of the mixed liquids are changed slightly. If necessary, excess moisture can be removed from the fluid using standard techniques. Transformers usually operate at reasonable temperatures and the application of the mineral oil and ester liquid Midel 7131 mixtures offers an increased insulation reliability. The dielectric strength at low temperatures is higher than that of pure mineral oil. Therefore, the lower risk of breakdown of the insulating liquid at low temperatures reduces the probability of a transformer malfunction. Ester liquid Midel 7131 and mixtures of Midel and mineral oil have in comparison to mineral oil a lot of advantages as insulating and cooling medium in transformers.

REFERENCES
[1] Kan, H., and Miyamoto, T. "Proposals for an improvement in transformer diagnosis using Dissolved Gas Analysis", IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 6, pp. 15-21, 1995 Borsi, H., Gockenbach, E., Fofana I., Bastian, J. "Verfahren zur Verbesserung der elektrischen und Alterungseigenschaften von minerallgefllten Hochspannungsgerten durch Beimischung einer hygroskopischen Isolierflssigkeit", Deutsches Patent und Markenamt DE 199 46 641 A1, April 2000 Borsi, H. "Esterflssigkeit Midel 7131 als Ersatz fr Minerall in Transformatoren", Elektrizittswirtschaft, Jg. 93, Vol. 24, pp. 15231528, 1994 Beyer, M., Boeck, W., Mller, K., Zaengel, W. "Hochspannungstechnik Theoretische und praktische Grundlagen", Springer-Verlag, 1986. H. Borsi, Dielectric behaviour of Silicon and Ester Liquids for Use in Distribution Transformers, IEEE Trans. On Elec. Insul. Vol. 26, No 4, pp 755-762, 1991 Breuer, W., Hegemann, G. "Behaviour of onload tap changers in Midel 7131 - A PCBalternative for transformers", CIGRE Symposium, Vienna (Austria), p. 500-509, 1987 IEC 60156 (VDE 0370 Teil 5) "Insulating liquids: Determination of the breakdown voltage at power frequency", 1995 Borsi, H., Ulrich, M., Leibfried, T.: "Das neue elektronische Buchholzrelais", Elektrizittswirtschaft, Vol. 97, No. 13, pp. 46-52, 1998

[2]

Fig. 5: Gas content generation versus temperature of different insulating liquids submitted to local heating for 180 s.

At a certain temperature, the gas generation in mineral oil is much higher than in ester liquid and also in the mixture of mineral oil with 20% of ester liquid. The generation of gas bubbles increases the risk of breakdown in the gas bubbles and finally in the total insulation system. Furthermore it has to be noticed, that the solubility of gases such as hydrogen is low in insulating liquids and the formation of gas bubbles can not be neglected. The electrical stress within the gas bubbles is higher compared to the stress in the liquid due to the lower permittivity and this will contribute also to the discharge probability and the local heating. The higher the gassing tendency, the higher the risk of breakdown inception in the insulating liquid. Adding ester liquid to mineral oil helps decreasing the gassing tendency under local thermal stresses and improves the performance of the liquid insulation component.

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

CONCLUSIONS
Ester liquid Midel 7131 has good electric, dielectric, thermal, aging and environmental characteristics. Furthermore it has - in comparison to mineral oil - much lower inflammability and thus much lower fire risk. As moisture is very critical for transformer insulation, the

[7]

[8]