中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.

cn

Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 173 – 179

www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Observations from measurements of the furfural content of oil

samples from transmission transformers
J.M.K. MacAlpine *, C.H. Zhang
Electrical Engineering Department, The Hong Kong Polytechnic Uni6ersity, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

Received 15 February 2000; received in revised form 18 May 2000; accepted 14 June 2000

Abstract

The concentration of the chemical furfural in transformer oil is well known to be an indicator of the extent to which the paper
insulation of the windings has deteriorated. However, the majority of publications on this topic are based on small-scale
laboratory investigations with very little on field experience with power transformers. This paper reports on the analysis of data
on the concentration of furfural in oil samples from 310 transmission transformers. The data showed that while high furfural
concentrations (FC’s) tended to occur in older transformers, there was no distinct trend. This, together with the lack of an upward
tendency for the FC in cases where two readings were taken several months apart, indicated that the deterioration in paper
strength and the associated increase in FC, occur in occasional and discrete steps. The model proposed is that these step-changes
are due either to internal faults causing extreme local overheating, or to overloading of the transformer causing general
overheating. A simulation based on these criteria gave a similar pattern of FC versus service age. Overall the results indicated an
upward trend of log(FC) versus length of service but with very large scatter and with clustering by manufacturer. It was clear that
the majority of transformers show negligible deterioration even after 20 years in service. This is in agreement with the above
scenario. There was reason to believe that transformers located in industrial areas were likely to have been overloaded during the
1980s, so an analysis by locality was done. This showed that the percentage of transformers with high (\ 4 mg/l) FC’s in
nominally industrial areas was double that of the rest. This difference, although suggestive, proved not to be statistically
significant. The model described indicates that, because of the auto-catalytic nature of the process, oil changes would be beneficial
where the FC level exceeds 4 mg/l: less deterioration will occur when the transformer is overloaded. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.
All rights reserved.

Keywords: Furfural analysis; Ageing; Transformer insulation

1. Introduction present study the results and subsequent analysis of

The windings of oil-filled transformers use paper
insulation and if this becomes weakened the conse-
quence of a fault current may be severe: the inevitably
high forces on the windings may result in mechanical
failure of the insulation and consequent inter-turn short
circuits. The reduction in strength of paper as it deteri-
orates is thus of considerable importance. A major
by-product of the degradation of paper is 2-furfuralde-
hyde or ‘furfural’ whose presence can be used as an
indicator of the progress of the deterioration. In the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: + 852-2766-6189; fax: +852-2330-
1544.
E-mail address: eejmkmac@polyu.edu.hk (J.M.K. MacAlpine).
tests to determine the furfural concentration in 361 oil
samples from transmission transformers are reported.
Paper is made from cellulose fibres dispersed in water
and drained to form a mat. The cellulose fibres are
prepared from wood and form a natural long-chain
polymer. The average length of the cellulose molecules
is linearly related to the tensile strength [1–3]. Reduc-
tion in the average length of the molecules from an
initial 800 repeat units (or monomers) to 300 is typi-
cally accompanied by a halving in the tensile strength,
but below an average length of 250 units the paper
generally becomes too weak to test. The most common
by-products from the scission of the cellulose molecules
are water, carbon dioxide and furfural. This organic
liquid has a partition ratio of 80:20 between the paper

0378-7796/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. 转载
PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 7 7 9 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 9 9 - 2
中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn
174 J.M.K. MacAlpine, C.H. Zhang / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 173–179

and the oil [4]. The logarithm of the furfural concentra-

tion in the oil has been shown to decrease linearly with
the average length of the molecules [1,2], and hence
with the tensile strength of the paper. The furfural
concentration may be measured by liquid chromatogra-
phy [5,6].
The degradation rate of the paper and the conse-
quent production of furfural and water is increased by
the presence of water (auto-catalysis) [1] and — expo-
nentially — by temperature [7]. It would thus appear
that normal operation, and even small overloads, have
little effect on the paper insulation but that sig-
nificant rises in temperature approaching, or even ex-
ceeding, the rated allowable temperature rise could
have very severe effects on the condition of the paper
insulation. Fig. 1. The distribution of the transformers between manufacturers.
All of these conclusions, however, rely on lab-
oratory-scale testing. Relatively little has been pub- 2. The significance of the repeated measurements
lished on field experience with testing for furfural
levels in power transformers. Few utilities appear to In 22 cases, measurements were conducted on oil
have much data on regular testing as a preventative samples from a transformer whose oil had already been
measure; and, naturally, few of them are keen to publi- tested. These give extremely useful indications of both
cise the result of investigations into transformer fail- the rapidity of change in a given transformer and the
ures. repeatability of the tests.
The few cases published relate in general to individ- In the discussion following, where there are two tests
ual cases or to observations of a small group of trans- on oil samples from the same transformer, the first is
formers. They show the inherent difficulties in designated T1 and the second T2. Where there are three
quantitatively linking the measured furfural concentra- tests, the first and second are considered as one ‘T1 and
tions in transformer oil samples with weakness of the T2’ pair and the second and third as another ‘T1 and
insulation [8–10]. This is because an internal fault may T2’ pair. In Fig. 2, T2 is plotted against T1 which
cause heating, paper weakening and significant furfural shows T2 and T1 to be approximately equal, with T2 as
production in one part of the transformer, but may not often greater than, as less than, T1. There is no appar-
raise the overall furfural concentration in the oil very ent tendency for T2 to be greater than T1 as might
much. On the other hand an overload causing a tem- perhaps have been expected, and there is considerable
perature rise throughout the transformer could well scatter.
raise the furfural concentration significantly. In spite of Accordingly, Fig. 3 was plotted to show the percent-
the general paucity of field data, there seems to be a age difference between successive test results versus the
consensus that a concentration of 2 mg/l probably time in months between the two tests. It shows that
indicates significant degradation of the paper insula-
tion, while 20 mg/l indicates the paper has been weak-
ened to a dangerous degree.
The authors of this paper had the opportunity of
analysing measurements which had been made of the
furfural concentration (FC) in 361 oil samples from 310
transmission transformers belonging to an electrical
power utility in the PR of China. The samples were sent
in batches to a testing house near Beijing. The trans-
formers came from a number of different manufactur-
ers but over half were from one particular
manufacturer (Fig. 1).
This paper gives the results of the authors’ attempts
to ‘mine’ the data for information on two related
aspects: the reliability of the measurements and the
relationship between ageing and the service age and Fig. 2. The second of each pair of repeated tests plotted against the
loading history. first test.
中国科技论文在线
J.M.K. MacAlpine, C.H. Zhang / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 173–179
Fig. 3. The percentage difference between successive test results versus the time in months between the two tests.
over a period of almost 2 years there is no significant
ageing trend. If the two data of just over 150% and the
one below −150% are discarded, the standard devia-
tion of the remainder is 25%: the 95% confidence limits
of 950% are indicated in Fig. 3. The three extreme
values are more than 6 standard deviations away from
2 (or 18).
zero and cannot therefore be considered as part of the
data population.
This lack of any steady ageing or deterioration, as
well as the high variability, may also be seen in the
multiple-test cases. One transformer was tested five
times over a period of some 20 months. The results of
the five tests (in mg/l) and the time intervals (in square
brackets) are as follows:
7.75[41/2 months] 10.98 [same day] 7.81 [12 months]
7.53 [3 months] 7.23.
This indicates that even in the case of a transformer
showing considerable deterioration (all values exceed 7
mg/l) there is still no obvious change for the worse over
a fairly long period. There is also a range of up to 40%
in the data, again showing the rather large measure-
ment uncertainty.
The three 3-test cases are set out in Table 1.
Again, there is no clear upward trend with time and
the results show ranges of up to 50%.
The two very high values of percentage change pre-
sumably indicate that an incident causing significant
deterioration of the paper strength occurred in the
period between the two tests.
The surprisingly low result with a 7 month gap
between the two measurements was in fact a drop from
0.15 to 0.02 mg/l, the latter being the resolution limit of
the instrument. It seems likely that this was a special
case (or data collection error).
http://www.paper.edu.cn
175
The standard deviation of 25% was obtained for the
differences between pairs of results. Since the variance
(the square of the standard deviation) of the differences
between pairs of results is twice that for the individual
results, it follows that the estimated standard deviation
for the individual measurements is 25/
Consequently the tolerance range for the indi6idual FC
measurements is 9 36%. This error level is surprisingly
large: it is over twice as large as that found for tests in
which four different laboratories in Australia were com-
pared [4] by independently measuring the furfural con-
centration in five different oil samples.
The poor repeatability of the measurements de-
scribed here may well originate in the long time in-
evitably elapsing between the sample taking and the
measurements. The utility in question is some consider-
able distance from Beijing, where the furfural analysis
was done: the samples could not all be sent out on the
same day and were held until a sizeable batch could
conveniently be sent to the testing laboratory.
If in-house testing were found to be economically
feasible the repeatability of the results would no doubt
be greatly enhanced, and the subsequent FC results
would be far more useful in determining the extent of
the deterioration of the transformers.
Table 1
Three cases where a set of three tests were carried out on the same
transformer
T1 Time interval T2 Time interval T3
(months) (months)
3.09 2 3.27 4 4.96
11.05 12 8.08 3 8.78
4.11 4.5 4.08 3 4.08
中国科技论文在线
176 J.M.K. MacAlpine, C.H. Zhang / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 173–179
Fig. 4. The furfural concentration in the 361 transformer oil samples
plotted against service age, by manufacturer.
3. Overall results
The furfural concentration (FC) of all 361 trans-
former oil samples are plotted against service age in
Fig. 4. The minimum resolution of the chromatograph
in question is 0.02 mg/l, so data given as ‘B 0.02’ (i.e.
between 0 and 0.02 mg/l) has been plotted as 0.01 mg/l
for completeness. The majority of transformers clearly
show very little deterioration (FC’s below 1 mg/l) even
after two decades of operation, but about 10% of them
have relatively high FC’s (more than 2 mg/l).
Because of the log/linear relationship between FC
and paper strength referred in Section 1, it is reasonable
to plot the FC against service years as a log/linear plot
(Fig. 5). There is indeed a general trend whereby the
higher FC levels occur on the older transformers but
the correlation is low. This is not surprising when it is
recalled the data represent ‘snapshots’ of one moment
in the history of each transformer, each with its own
Fig. 5. A log/linear plot of transformer oil furfural concentration
versus service age by manufacturer.
http://www.paper.edu.cn
Fig. 6. The furfural content of oil samples from 190 Manufacturer ‘A’
transformers.
loading history, and hence individual deterioration level
and trend. Consequently the data cannot be expected to
sit on a single trend line. The variation indicates that
individual histories are more important than simple
ageing in determining condition.
There is also a clear tendency for the data from
transformers of a given manufacturer to cluster to-
gether. For example, it appears that transformers from
Manufacturer B have faired better than those of Manu-
facturer A. This does not necessarily mean that present
day Manufacturer-B transformers are longer-lasting
than those of Manufacturer A, but that this seems to be
the case for those manufactured 20 years ago.
Because of this clustering of each manufacturer’s
transformers, the next two sections consider only data
from the largest group, the Manufacturer-A transform-
ers, in order to remove this source of variation. This set
has been plotted as Fig. 6 and will be referred to later.
In passing it may be noted that there are 10 transform-
ers whose FC is greater than or equal to 2 mg/l (and
four intermediate cases, 1–2 mg/l); but that the major-
ity of those over 12 years old (25 out of 39) continue in
good condition, that is, with FC values less than 1 mg/l.
It would seem likely that the 10 ‘poor-condition’ trans-
formers had a harder service life with more and longer
periods close to, or above, full rated load.
When the FC data was plotted against transformers
size in MVA, irrespective of age, no correlation was
observed (Fig. 7): larger transformers are neither better
nor worse than smaller ones in terms of paper deterio-
ration rates or tendencies. The transformers ranged
from 20 to 100 MVA.
4. Location
As has been observed in the previous section, the
individual histories seem more important than length of
service in determining condition. However, no data on
中国科技论文在线
J.M.K. MacAlpine, C.H. Zhang / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 173–179
Fig. 7. The furfural content of the transmission transformers plotted
against their capacity.
the loading history was available, other than the anec-
dotal generalisation that there had been periods of
considerable overloading for transformers serving in-
dustrial areas during the 1980s, when a rapid expansion
of the industrial sector occurred. At this time the utility
concerned apparently had difficulty in keeping up with
demand. Certainly there appears to be an abrupt in-
crease in the number of transformers with higher FC’s
in the group having between 13 and 20 years of service
in both Fig. 4 and Fig. 6.
The locations of a group of transformers were there-
fore classified according to the predominant customer
type (Table 2) in order to investigate if the higher FC
levels tended to occur in these ‘industrial’ locations. To
avoid the between-manufacturer variations referred to
in the previous section, only the Manufacturer-A trans-
formers were considered, and, of them, only those 39
which were over 12 years old. This latter restriction
made the age group slightly more homogeneous, and
also omitted those installed after the period of fast
industrial expansion.
Of these 39 transformers, 25 were still in good condi-
tion (FCB 1 mg/l), four were in intermediate condition
(1B FC B 2 mg/l) and ten had relatively high FC-levels
(FC \ 2 mg/l), as shown in Table 2.
The ‘predominant customer type’ for a given district
is inevitably a fairly rough classification, as there will
always be a mix of customers in any district. Neverthe-
less, the proportion of ‘high-FC’ transformers in the
Table 2
FC levels by customer type
Commercial Residential
High(FC\2mg/l) 0 2
Intermediate 1 0
Low (FCB1 mg/l) 1 8
Totals: 2 10
http://www.paper.edu.cn
177
industrial locations is greater than in all other areas (35
versus 18%). This difference was not found to be statis-
tically significant according to the  2 test of ‘goodness
of fit’ [11], probably mainly because of the relatively
small sample. It may also have been affected the inho-
mogeneity of the customer mix.
5. Simulation
It has been suggested earlier, that there should be
little or no deterioration under normal operation even
with short-term minor overloads; and that running at
temperatures significantly over the manufacturer’s rat-
ings would be required for appreciable deterioration to
occur over the whole transformer, and hence for sub-
stantial increases in FC to occur. This model was
written into a simulation in order to compare the
distributions obtained with Fig. 6.
The simulation used a sample of 190 transformers,
with the same age distribution as those from Manufac-
turer A, was used. It assumed a single significant incre-
ment in the FC to occur, with a 50% probability, once
each year. The size of the increment was made propor-
tional to the existing FC level (because of the autocata-
lytic effect of the water), but with a random element:
(New FC)
= (previous FC) + a (previous FC) (rand),
where rand is randomly chosen each time from a
range between 0.5 and 1.0. The value of a was set to a
fractional value such that the average FC was the same
as had been obtained in practice (Fig. 6).
Three examples of the distributions obtained are
shown in Fig. 8. By contrast, the three example distri-
butions in Fig. 9 are for the same simulation but with
incremental increases in FC occurring, with a 50%
probability, once each month. The value of a was again
set to a fractional value such that the average FC was
the same as that obtaining with the 190 Manufacturer
A transformers
The distributions shown in Fig. 8 are clearly fairly
similar to that in Fig. 6. For example, between 16 and
20 years of service the majority of transformers, in both
simulation and measured data, have low FC’s (less than
l mg/l), and between 2 and 4 transformers have high
Industrial Airport Totals
6 2 10
2 1 4
9 7 25
17 10 39
中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn
178 J.M.K. MacAlpine, C.H. Zhang / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 173–179

6. Discussion

No gradual and systematic deterioration was visible

for 38 of the 40 transformers which were tested more
than once (Section 2). However, there were two cases
where the FC increased dramatically within a 21 month
period by large factors — and these are now being

Fig. 8. Three simulations of 190 transformers with possible yearly

increments in FC, proportional to, but smaller than, the existing FC.

FC’s (greater than 4 mg/l). By contrast, in the distribu-

tions in Fig. 9, the majority of transformers of between
16 and 20 years of service have FC’s greater than 1
mg/l, and between 5 and 8 transformers (twice as many
as in Fig. 8) have high FC’s.
The simulation agrees with the assertion that trans-
formers deteriorate mainly because of occasional and Fig. 9. Three simulations of 190 transformers with very small incre-
substantial FC increments, rather than many small but ments in FC possible every month. The increments in FC are
frequent increments. proportional to, but smaller than, the existing FC.
中国科技论文在线
J.M.K. MacAlpine, C.H. Zhang / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 173–179
carefully and regularly monitored. These results show
that no, or negligible, deterioration takes place in trans-
formers operated normally, but that sudden step
changes in the FC can and do occur. This is also in
agreement with the large variation between transform-
ers, even those from the same manufacturer (Section 3),
and with the results of the simulation (Section 5).
The simulation required the assumption that the
increments be proportional to the existing FC, in agree-
ment with the auto-catalytic effect of the water, another
by-product of paper deterioration. This implies that
replacing the oil in high FC transformers would de-
crease the deteriorating effect of high temperature oper-
ation. If 4 mg/l were set as the alarm level above which
an oil change and more regular FC monitoring were
required, then probably only one transformer would
need treatment each year (because only 15 of the 310
transformers were over 4 mg/l and the transformers
range in age up to 30 years).
It was noted earlier, however, that the oil/paper
partition ratio for furfural is about 20:80 [4], so that the
FC in the oil would rise over a matter of months to a
level determined by the relative proportions of paper
and oil. If the volume of the oil is one hundred times
that of the paper then, with a 1:5 partition ratio, 95%
of the furfural is in the oil. After replacing the oil, the
equilibrium FC would be reduced to 5% of what it had
been, both in the oil and the paper. This should ideally
decrease the step deterioration due to high-temperature
operation by a factor of 20.
Obviously, however, the condition of the paper —
the tensile strength — would remain at the level sig-
nalled by the previous FC. This would require record-
keeping to ensure awareness of the ‘insulation age’ or
condition of the transformer. Thus a transformer which
has twice reached an FC of 4 mg/l and twice had its oil
replaced must be considered as an ‘8 mg/l plus’ trans-
former with the implied relatively weak insulating pa-
per. Knowledge of how many transformers have
relatively weak paper insulation, and which are there-
fore susceptible to failure under overcurrent conditions,
is an important factor in financial planning.
7. Conclusion
Analysis of the repeated data and of the data overall
led to the conclusion that:
“ negligible deterioration of the insulating paper oc-
curs in a 1 year period under normal operating
conditions; and
“ deterioration occurs as step increments during inci-
http://www.paper.edu.cn
179
dents when either over-loading causes relatively high
temperatures in the transformers or a fault causes
local deterioration resulting in intense local heating.
This was supported by the results of simulations and
also by the results of a comparison of the FC levels in
transformers 12 or more years old, and located in
industrial zones, with those located elsewhere: those in
industrial area where overloading was known to have
taken place were twice as likely to have high FC’s.
It is suggested firstly that annual FC measurements
should be made: there should be no significant changes
in the furfural concentration from year to year but if
such occur then either there has been an overload —
which should have been recorded — or a fault has
developed, causing severe local overheating.
Secondly, oil replacement is recommended for trans-
formers with high FC levels as this will lessen the
deterioration rate during overloads.
References
[1] D.H. Shroff, A.W. Stannett, A review of paper ageing in power
transformers, Proc IEE 132 (1985) 312 – 319.
[2] D.J.T. Hill, T.T. Le, M. Darveniza, T. Saha, A study of the
degradation of cellulosic insulation materials in a power trans-
former. Part III: degradation products of cellulose insulation
paper, Polymer Degradation and Stability 5l (1996) 211 –218.
[3] D. Zheng, B. Lu, L. Yuan and D. Zheng,Thermal ageing behav-
ior of the oil-impregnated paper at 160°C, Proc. of the 5th
International Conference on Properties and Applications of
Dielectric Materials, Seoul, Korea, 25 – 30 May, 1997, pp.256–
258.
[4] D.M. Allan, Recent advances in the analysis and interpretation
of aged insulation from operating power transformers, Proc. 5
International Conference on Properties and Applications of
Dielectric Materials, Seoul, Korea, 25 – 30 May, 1997.
[5] P.J. Burton, J. Graham, A.C. Hall, J.A. Laver and A.J.
Oliver,Recent developments by CEGB to improve the prediction
and monitoring of transformer performance, CIGRE Paper 12 –
09, 1984.
[6] J. Unsworth, F. Mitchell, Degradation of electrical insulating
paper monitored with high performance liquid chromatography,
IEEE Trans. El 25 (1990) 737 – 746.
[7] D.J.T. Hill, T.T. Le, M. Darveniza, T. Saha, A study of the
degradation of cellulosic insulation materials in a power trans-
former. Part I: Molecular weight study of cellulose insulation
paper, Polymer Degradation and Stability 48 (1995) 79 – 87.
[8] D.M. Allan, Practical life-assessment technique for aged trans-
former insulation, Proc.IEE Pt.A 140 (1993) 404 – 408.
[9] M.K. Domun,Condition monitoring of power transformers, IEE
Colloquium (Digest), V675, pp.2/1 – 2/3, 1994.
[10] T.S.R. Murthy, Assessment of transformer insulation condition
by evaluation of paper-oil systems, Proc. IEEE Conference on
Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, San Francisco,
20-23 October, 1996, pp.332-335.
[11] M.J. Moroney,Facts from figures, Chapter 15, Penguin (Har-
mondsworth), 1951.