Comparative study of moisture treatment techniques for mineral insulating oil

Abstract

The presence of moisture is one of the factors that promote degradation of transformer insulating oils and deterioration of cellulose insulation materials in oil-immersed power transformers, which affect the lifespan of the transformers. Realizing the importance of moisture in transformer insulating oils, this study compares the effectiveness of three moisture treatment techniques nitrogen bubbling technique (NBT), molecular sieve technique (MST), and vacuum oven technique (VOT)) for mineral oil (MO). The moisture content and AC breakdown voltage of the MO samples before and after moisture treatment were measured using Karl Fischer coulometric titrator and portable oil tester, respectively, in accordance with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D1533 and ASTM D1816 standards. The results showed that NBT is the best moisture treatment technique for the MO, where the NBT reduced 80.79% of moisture present in the oil, followed by MST and VOT, which reduced 72.87 and 42.28% of moisture, respectively. The results also showed that the AC breakdown voltage of the MO samples after moisture treatment was improved owing to the reduction in moisture content.