Mohd Nazim Mohtar

Suitability of Palm Based Oil as Dielectric Insulating Fluid in Transformers

Mineral oil has been widely used as dielectric insulating fluid in transformers due to its excellent performance in-service. However, there are few issues with mineral oil such as it has poor biodegradability and could contaminate the environment if a spillage occurs. With the increasing tight regulation on safety and environment, alternative fluids for mineral oil are currently being investigated and among the suitable candidate is the vegetable oil. There are different types of vegetable oils and one of them is the palm based oil. At the moment, extensive research works are carried out to examine its feasibility to be applied in transformers. This paper will review the previous research works that were carried out to examine the suitability of palm based oil as dielectric insulating fluid in transformers. The physical and chemical properties of palm based oil are studied based on viscosity, acidity, oxidation stability and flash point. Next, the electrical characteristics of palm based oil are examined based on AC breakdown voltage, relative permittivity, dissipation factor and partial discharge.

Effect of Particles on the AC Breakdown Voltage of Palm Oil and Coconut Oil

Under current scenario of regulation on the safety and environment, biodegradable oils are gaining interest as dielectric insulating fluid in transformers. There are different types of biodegradable oils that are currently examined and among them are Palm Oil (PO) and Coconut Oil (CO). It is important to carry out extensive examination on these oils at laboratory level since the failure in-service could be costly. Among the important studies are the AC breakdown strength properties under the influence of particles. In this paper, a study is carried out to examine the influence of particles on the AC breakdown voltage of POand CO. The PO used in this study is Refined Bleached and Deodorized (RBDPO) Olein type. Two types of particles are used for the investigations which are cellulose and copper particles.Four different weights of particles are added on each of the samples and tested with the AC breakdown tester at a gap distance of 1 mm using VDE electrodes. It was found that copper particles have more significant effect on the AC breakdown strength of RBDPO and CO than cellulose particles.

Portable biosensor for chronic malaria detection

Malaria is a leading parasitic disease endangering the lives of half of the worlds population. Microfluidics paves way to indispensable portable sensors to enable early sensing hence defend lives. In this paper, we demonstrate a portable sensor based on dielectric spectroscopy capable of pre-diagnostic and malaria parasite detection. The complete sensor system consists of the separation zone to separate the white blood cells and the detection zone, which is connected to portable impedance circuit board to measure the dielectric value of red blood cells to detect the infection. The current work highly emphasize on the separation part only while a little light is shed on detection zone.