OCCURRENCE, COMPOSITION PROFILES AND POTENTIAL RISK ASSESSMENT OF POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS (PCBS) IN TRANSFORMER OILS

Abstract

One of the most common problems encountered in everyday life is the pollution of the environment. Therefore, regardless of the nature of the daily activities of the population, this destructive effect of the natural balance finds its origin perhaps in the lack of capacity over time to treat the problem of waste (industrial and domestic) as it should. Although important steps have been taken in this regard, and prevention and control rules have been imposed in most countries of the world, these steps must be supported by all socio-economic / political components through clear measures, anchored to global developments. There are among these generic sources of pollution, which are referred to above, processes that requires high power equipment (generators, transformers, etc.) or hydraulic who which also requires thermal insulation fluids. The aim of this study is to investigate the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) presence in the dielectric oil of power transformers. In this matter, fifteen samples were collected from transformer oils, in the summer of the year 2017, and analyzed from a physicochemical point of view. A more specific aim was to corroborate the findings regarding the amount of chlorine in oil samples with the age of the power transformer using statistical methods. The cluster's analysis indicated that the investigated samples are clustered into four major groups, providing useful information for further studies on PCBs mobility in the environment.