N.A.M.

JAMAIL et al: INSULATION CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS OF COCONUT OIL AND PALM OIL AS …

Insulation Characteristic Analysis of Coconut Oil and Palm Oil as Liquid Insulating
Material

N.A.M.Jamail1, M. H. Ishak2 N.A. Muhamad3

1,2 3
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Institute of High Voltage and High Current (IVAT)
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Johor, Malaysia Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
1
norakmal@uthm.edu.my 81310 Johor Bahru, Malaysia
2 3
muhammadhanafiishak@gmail.com norasiah@fke.utm.my

Abstract - The paper presents a study which has been carried out to use coconut oil as insulation in transformers. In transformer,
oil is used as a coolant and also as an insulator. Nowadays, petroleum based oil is widely used in the transformer as it meets the
requirements to be the best insulator. It is a fact that petroleum based oil will not be available for future generation used. Hence,
further studies discovered that the coconut oil and refined, bleached, deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) has a great potential to be used
a liquid insulation in transformer. An electrical test which using the breakdown voltage method was conducted for the coconut oil
and refined, bleached, deodorized palm oil (RBDPO). The coconut oil and palm oil which have different heat effect were measured
and compared to each other. The results shows that the coconut oil have high breakdown voltage compared to RBDPO. The result
of the coconut oil and refined, bleached, deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) show that the samples have good insulation characteristic as
liquid insulating material.

Keywords - Dielectric insulating fluid, Refined bleached deodorized palm oil (RBDPO); Coconut oil; dielectric properties.

I. INTRODUCTION Unfortunately the price of specially treated sunflower oil is

Liquid insulations are widely used in high voltage
systems such as power transformer where it provides
electrical insulation, suppress corona and arcing and acts
as a coolant to prevent the transformer from overheating
[1]. The insulating oil must possess high dielectric strength,
high thermal stability, low dielectric losses and reasonable
economical prices [2]. Petroleum-based mineral oils
readily meet almost all the characteristics of insulating oils
and so they are in common use as the liquid insulator in
power transformer. However, mineral oil has negative
impact to the environment, contaminating the soil and
water, whenever there are cases of accidental transformers
fires, explosions or tank ruptures [3]. Furthermore, mineral
oil is from a fossil fuel source that is exhaustible and
depleting thereby raising concern that it may not meet the
needs of future generations. Traditionally, mineral oil,
synthetic esters and silicon oils have been used in
transformers. More recently, the environmentally friendly
sunflower oil has been used as transformer oil for special
purposes [4]. For long time, petroleum-based mineral oils
have been used in liquid insulation. In addition, the original
transformer oil used can be obtained with high prices.
Moreover, due to environmental consideration, the original
transformer oil may disturb the plantation and other lives.
very high compared to mineral oil [4]. The quality of the
oil is very important. A high voltage and highly loaded
transformers demands better quality oil than a low voltage,
lightly loaded transformer [5].
II. SAMPLES AND TEST PROCEDURE
A. Sample
Test sample for this project is already defined. Refined,
bleached and deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) and coconut
oil are sample that had been used to test in attempting
mission to prove it as an alternative electrical insulating
liquid in high voltage application.
The characteristic of the coconut oil have done
investigated. Coconut oil is a colourless to pale brownish-
yellow liquid. In temperate climates, it appears as greasy,
somewhat crystalline and white to yellowish solid fat [4].
Coconut oil is extensively used for edible and industrial
process. Products derived from coconut oil and its fatty
acids can find in numerous applications such as in food,
textile and synthetic resin industries. Recently, coconut oil
is used even as an auto lubricant. Although coconut oil may
come from diverse sources, there is a good agreement as to
its properties. Coconut oil, as non-toxic, is environment

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 N.A.M.JAMAIL et al: INSULATION CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS OF COCONUT OIL AND PALM OIL AS …

friendly alternative oil. Coconut oil is dominated by

saturated fats (about 90%) and out of that, about 65%
included medium and short chains such as Lauric acid,
Myristic acid, Capric acids and Caprylic acid [6].
Therefore it is very useful to investigate how the coconut
oil behaves as insulator and their effects to the breakdown
strength.
Apart from natural ester, palm based oil is another type
of vegetable oil that can be used as dielectric insulating
fluid in transformers. The chemical characteristics of palm
based oil are almost close to natural ester such as it is
biodegradable, has high flash/fire point and it is non-
toxic since most of the palm based oil is from the food
grade type [11]. Palm based oil has also a wide composition
of fatty acids that include a wide range of carbon which
account to the good oxidation stability as compared to
other types of vegetable oils [12].
Palm oil has a balanced fatty acid composition in which the
Figure 1. Electrode arrangement design of breakdown voltage test
level of saturated fatty acids is almost equal to that of the
unsaturated fatty acids. Palmitic acid (44%-45%) and oleic
acid (39%-40%) are the major component acids, with
linoleic acid (10%-11%) and only a trace amount of
linolenic acid [12]. The low level of linoleic acid and
virtual absence of linolenic acid make the oil relatively
stable to oxidative deterioration. There are different types
of palm based oils that are currently being considered for
high voltage application [7]. In this experiment, RBDPO
has been choose as a sample.

B. Breakdown Voltage

One of the most important characteristic of an insulator

is breakdown voltage. Breakdown voltage is a
characteristic of the oil that defines the maximum voltage
difference that can be applied across the oil before the
material collapses. To make sure coconut oil and RBDPO Figure 2. Fill the test cell with test sample
can be used as an alternative insulating material in high
voltage application, breakdown voltage testing should be
conducted. Breakdown voltage test is part of electrical
characteristic insulating oil. From this testing, the result of C. Testing Equipment
the breakdown test must be high to prove coconut oil and Table 1 shows the list of testing equipment that had
RBDPO are good insulating material. In addition, to been used during high voltage experiment. The
prevent breakdown of the oil under electrical stress, maximum rated for this equipment is 100kV. Figure 3
breakdown voltage must be high. By referring to BS 148: shows the circuit diagram that was used for breakdown
Dec 1972, breakdown voltage test will be conducted. By test while the actual experimental setup for breakdown
using spherical electrode with 2.5mm gap [8], like in voltage test is shown in Figure 4. Figure 5 shows the 
Figure 1. The Breakdown voltages of the samples are block diagram for high voltage direct current (HVDC)
measured. Figure 2 shows the test cell that was used for experiment.
breakdown test.

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 N.A.M.JAMAIL et al: INSULATION CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS OF COCONUT OIL AND PALM OIL AS …

TABLE 1 LIST OF TESTING EQUIPMENT.

Figure 4. Experiment setup for breakdown test.

Figure 3. Circuit diagram that used for the breakdown experiment.

Figure 5. Block diagram for high voltage direct current (HVDC)

experiment.

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A. Breakdown Voltage
Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the average value of
breakdown voltage of RBDPO that has heat effect while
Figure 8 and Figure 9 show the average value of coconut

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 N.A.M.JAMAIL et al: INSULATION CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS OF COCONUT OIL AND PALM OIL AS …

oil breakdown voltage. The graphs show that when the

temperature of the sample increase, the value of breakdown
voltage will also increase.
60
45

BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE (kV)
50
40
40
BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE (kV)

35

30 30

25 20
20
10
15
0
10
27.5 40 50 60 70 80
5 TEMPERATURE 0C)
0
27.5 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Figure 8. Bar chart average of coconut oil breakdown voltage
TEMPERATURE0C 

Figure 6. Bar chart average of RBDPO breakdown voltage. 50 46.1

43.49
45 40.84
40 37.24
45
BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE (KV)

33.5
35
40
30 27.88
35
BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE (KV)

25
30
20
25
15
20
10
15
5
10
0
5 0 20 40 60 80 100
TEMPERATURE (OC)
0
0 50 100 150
TEMPERATURE (OC) Figure 9. Line chart average of coconut oil breakdown voltage.

B. Comparison between RBDPO and coconut oil

Figure 7. Line chart average of RBDPO breakdown voltage.
Figure 10 and Figure 11 show comparison average
breakdown voltage between RBDPO and coconut oil. The
result show that breakdown value for coconut oil is higher
than value of breakdown voltage for RBDPO. However,

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 N.A.M.JAMAIL et al: INSULATION CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS OF COCONUT OIL AND PALM OIL AS …

breakdown voltage for RBDPO and coconut oil linearly avoid a breakdown when the electric stress at high
increase by increasing of the temperature. temperature condition. From the result, it shows that the
both sample can replaced petroleum based mineral oil as
50 electrical insulating liquid.
45 The study was conducted to search for new insulating
oils as an alternative to replace petroleum-based mineral
40
oil. The main factors identified as the cause for the search
BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE  (kV)

35 for new insulating oils for petroleum-based mineral oil is

not environmentally friendly. This type of oil is very
30
dangerous to the stability of the ecosystem in the event of
25 spillage or leakage. Much research has been done and oil
samples have been tested to see whether there is potential
20 for oil is able to replace the mineral oil. The researchers
15 have discovered two new oil that is produced after the
refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil and coconut oil.
10 This types of oil is safe for the environment as well as gains
5 an advantage in terms of increased supplies of many of
Malaysia as among the country's largest palm oil and
0 coconut oil producing world.
0 20 40 60 80 100
TEMPERATURE (oC)

Figure 10. Comparison between palm oil (RBDPO) and coconut oil
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
50 The authors gratefully acknowledge the Universiti Tun
45
Hussein Onn Malaysia under vote U252 (IGSP), Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the use of facilities and by
BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE (kV)

40 awarding Research University Grants (UTM GUP) under

35
vote number 10H16, Ministry of Science, Technology and
Innovation (MOSTI) under vote number 4S101, and
30 Ministry of Education (MOE), Malaysia under vote number
4F515 and 4L055, and Taiko Plantation Sdn Bhd as a
25
supplier of Natural Rubber.
20
15 REFERENCES
10
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5 Obadage and K.A.I.Gunatunga “Coconut Oil Insulated
Distribution Transformer”, Paper 2001/02 presented at the 8th
0 Annual Conference of the IEE Sri Lanka on 22 September 2001.
[2] Suwarno F. Sitinjak, Ichwan Suhariadi, Luthfi Imsak, “Study on the
27.5 40 50 60 70 80
Characteristics of Palm Oil and it’s Derivatives as Liquid Insulating
TEMPERATURE (oC) Materials” Department of Electrical Engineering Bandung Institute
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