Detection of Furfural Concentration in Transformer Oil Using Laser Raman Spectroscopy

Summary

Power transformers are one of the most important electrical equipment in power systems. The analysis of furfural concentration is regard as an important means of estimating degradation of insulating paper in oil-immersed power transformers. Using Laser Raman Spectroscopy (LRS) to detect furfural concentration can overcome many disadvantages of traditional detection methods and realize fast test. In this paper, the application of LRS in the detection of furfural concentration has been studied. First of all, based on the basic principle of LRS, we expound the mechanism using LRS for quantitative and qualitative detection. Gaussian 09W was used to build the structure model of furfural molecule and analyze the Raman spectrogram of furfural molecule. LRS liquid detection test platform was built based on confocal Raman technology. Standard samples of transformer oil were tested utilizing this test platform directly. In order to further improve the detection sensitivity, extraction technology was applied. Experimental results showed that: After extracting by acetonitrile, the detection limit of furfural in transformer oil reached 0.12 mg/L. Applying the least square method, we established the quantitative model between the concentration of furfural in transformer oil and the Raman characteristic peak area of furfural. At last, test results were compared with results measured by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The comparison results showed that LRS with extraction can quantitatively detect the furfural concentration in transformer oil effectively (the maximum error less than 10.83%), which proposes a new way to realizing the fast testing of furfural concentration in transformer oil.

Additional informations

Authors

Tabke Thorsten, Souza Ronimack Trajano de, Pawlowski Erik, Xiang Jing, Zhao Dan, Liu Xuezhong