(Yicai Global) July 26 -- A team from southwest China's Chongqing University has followed the US, Sweden, and Japan to develop a vegetable oil-based insulator for greener and safer power grids.

After 17 years of research efforts, Chongqing University's research team made the breakthrough of producing vegetable oil-based insulating fluid to create an environmentally friendly option for mineral oil in power grid transformers, local news outlet China News reported today. The invention obtained 21 technical patents, as well as six for the model of use.

Most Chinese transformers use mineral oil-based insulating fluid with an ignition point of 160 celsius degrees, which causes risks of overheating and explosion, Prof. Li Jian, the head of the project, said. "A vegetable oil-based option has a high ignition point of over 300 degrees and can naturally degrade."

The group has partnered with Henan's Electric Power to build a production line with an annual capacity of 1,500 tons, equipped with fitting transformers, as well as with state-owned China Southern Power Grid to make the country's first 110-kilovolt distribution transformer that uses green insulating materials.

The university has sold over 1,000 sets of the related equipment to the provinces of Henan and Guangdong in the past three years.

Editor: Emmi Laine