Analyses of physical characteristics of vegetable oils as an alternative source to mineral oil-based dielectric fluid

Vegetable/seed-based oils are highly biodegradable, have no/negligible impact on the environment, human health and the ecosystem. These oils are produced from numerous oil seeds. While most of them are highly biodegradable and environmentally friendly, they may require some processing and modification to improve some of their physical and electrochemical properties to assure their safe use in power and distribution transformers. This paper provides a comparative assessment of the thermo-physical properties of several vegetable oils with respect to a mineral oil and highlights the suitability of vegetable oils to use as dielectric fluid in power and distribution transformers.