| Project Detail |
The key cause of transformer failure is overheating, which becomes more likely over time due to breakdown of mineral oil, an important transformer heat dissipation and insulating component. C-Crete Technologies will integrate advanced surface chemistry, colloidal engineering with high-throughput characterization, and standardized testing to develop insulating nanofluids for large power transformers (LPTs), with a projected lifetime greater than 80 years. The core of the technology is based on mechanochemical exfoliation of 2D hexagonal boron nitride nanoparticles with tailored surface functionalization for indefinite colloidal stability in mineral oil using a simple and economical method compatible with LPTs. The nanoparticles will improve the thermal conductivity performance of the mineral oil by orders of magnitude leading to extended LPT service life. |
