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SOLUTIONS
Ultrinium™ brand and Perficio™
brand fluids are safer to use
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Tailored Formulation
Every solution that Novinium offers includes the double top secret Novinium Element. Safety
is the number one design criterion for each Novinium product and service. Unlike older technology, all
Novinium®-brand rejuvenation fluids are not flammable and all Ultrinium™-brand rejuvenation fluids contain
no known carcinogens or reproductive toxins.
Novinium is proud to offer two power cable rejuvenation fluids. Keep an eye on this web site for the
introduction of revolutionary technology for in situ strand filling of air-core copper telephone, fiber
optic, and power cables. Solutions available now include:
Perficio™ 011 is evolutionary and delivers a long-term performance
advantage in excess of 30% compared to the older silicone injection approach. Perficio™ 011 has all
of the safety advantages Novinium and risk managers demand and the low fluid cost of the older technology.
It’s cheaper, because the base chemical, phenylmethyldimethoxysilane or PMDMS, is a commodity, which
is made in large quantities for 100's of other applications. But we improved the catalyst so the fluid
supplied to the strands stays in the cable longer and we made it less flammable. To learn the details
of how Novinium improved upon the older fluid, check out "Advances in Chemical Rejuvenation: Extending Medium Voltage Cable Life 40 Years"
presented in Versailles France at the Jicable Conference on June 26, 2007. In non-demanding applications
(low soil temperature and low load), Perficio™ 011 can provide 20 years of reliable life. However, like
its predecessor, it contains benzene which is a known carcinogen and male reproductive toxin.
Ultrinium™ 732 and Ultrinium™ 733 fluid are revolutionary
and are the fluid technology of choice for the most demanding applications. The silane chemicals of
732 and 733 are custom designed for the rejuvenation application. Sure that means they cost more, but
they provides greater than 2 times the life extension of Perficio™ 011. 732 and 733 fluids are not flammable
and contain no known carcinogens or reproductive toxins.
Tailored Injection
Novinium developed a patented method called Tailored Injection™ for delivering cable rejuvenation fluids
utilizing either sustained pressure rejuvenation (SPR) or unsustained pressure rejuvenation (UPR). Tailored
Injection™ assures that the correct fluid formulation and the optimum amount of cable rejuvenation fluid
is available to provide the desired life extension. Tailored Injection™ is particularly critical for
7-strand and 19-strand cables. The chart near-by shows the robustness of each injection approach with
each fluid as reflected by the warranted post-injection reliable life. The primary choices are Ultrinium™
732 fluid delivered with Sustained Pressure Rejuvenation (SPR) as a first choice and with Un-sustained
Pressure Rejuvenation (UPR) as a second choice. For less demanding circumstances Perficio™ 011, can
be delivered at a lower cost. For high temperature feeder applications (>60°C) Ultrinium™ 733 fluid
provides the highest performance.
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*Non-demanding applications only. Warranted life extension by injection paradigm (UPR
or SPR) and fluid choice. SPR and Ultrinium™ 732 together provide the highest reliability and best capital
efficiency for small diameter cables. **Ultrinium™ 733 is used for large diameter cables and where conductor
temperatures may exceed 60°C.
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Temperature Is a Big Deal
The temperature at which a cable operates has a profound effect on the duration of reliable life extension
that can be delivered with chemical rejuvenation. Over time all fluid injected into a cable permeates
out of the cable. Fluid that is not in the cable is not adding to that cable’s reliability. For each
10°C (18°F) temperature increase the rate of permeation triples. With the Perficio™ 011 technology or
the older technology it replaced, the same fluid formulation is used regardless of the anticipated operating
temperature of the cable. This approach is fine for lightly loaded cables in mesic soils (the green
areas on the Soil Temperature Regimes map nearby), but provides about three times less life extension
for cable in Central Arizona, South Texas, or Florida even for lightly loaded cables.
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Safer
- 3-times less exposure to high voltage components
- Less flammable than older injection fluids
- No potentially energized equipment creating unusual hazards
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*Non-demanding applications only. Warranted life extension by injection paradigm (UPR
or SPR) and fluid choice. SPR and Ultrinium™ 732 together provide the highest reliability and best capital
efficiency for small diameter cables. **Ultrinium™ 733 is used for large diameter cables and where conductor
temperatures may exceed 60°C.
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Paradigms & Fluids
Replacement is the least safe rehabilitation option. Cable rejuvenation in any of its incarnations is
inherently safer than cable replacement. For rejuvenation there are three injection paradigms and four
choices of chemistry. The twelve possible combinations are shown in the chart nearby. Not all of the
possible combinations are commercially significant. CableCURE® fluid is delivered with the Unsustained
Pressure Rejuvenation (UPR) and soak paradigm. Because Novinium holds several patents and pending patents
on Sustained Pressure Rejuvenation (SPR) and advanced catalysts, CableCURE fluid cannot be delivered
with SPR technology and requires a soak period on all 200 amp cables except those with 4/0 round conductors.
These constrains eliminate two of the possible twelve choices. While Novinium can and does deliver rejuvenation
in all nine of the remaining possible combinations shown, as a practical matter many of those choices
only utilized in very special circumstances. The five rehabilitation choices arranged from highest risk
to lowest risk are shown below.
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- Replacement
- Unsustained Pressure Rejuvenation, with Soak and CableCURE fluid
- Unsustained Pressure Rejuvenation, with no soak and Ultrinium™ 732/733 fluid
- Sustained Pressure Rejuvenation, with no soak and Perficio™ 011 fluid
- Sustained Pressure Rejuvenation, with no soak and Ultrinium™ 732/733 fluid
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Perficio™ 011 fluid uses the same base monomeric silane as the CableCURE fluid, but improves upon its
catalysis, which improves its efficacy, but more importantly substituted a high flash point component
for a low flash point component and hence made the fluid much less flammable. Ultrinium™ 732 and Ultrinium™
733 represent a family of the highest performance treatment fluids available and enjoys the same or
higher flash point (i.e. low flammability), as Perficio™ 011. Perficio™ 011 fluid, Ultrinium™ 732 fluid,
and Ultrinium™ 733 fluid are preferably delivered using the state-of-the-art Sustained Pressure Rejuvenation
paradigm, but both optionally be applied using Unsustained Pressure Rejuvenation.
Unsustained Pressure Rejuvenation requires a hole in an otherwise perfectly good elbow to provide physical
access to the conductor. Warning tags alert trouble staff that equipment might be energized – but it
is difficult to be assured that they will stop to read them if they visit this pad mount transformer
at 2:15 in the morning. UPR with a soak period requires at least 3 times more visits to energized transformers
than the SPR paradigm. Each visit multiplies the risk of electrical contact. When the UPR paradigm is
combined with CableCURE/XL fluid, which
has a flash point of 32°F (0°C), making it more flammable than jet fuel A, there is also a potential
for fire or explosion. A reservoir of flammable fluid is stored in a high voltage environment at an
elevated pressure for 60 days, 120 days, or even more.
The combination of Ultrinium™ 732 fluid for small diameter cables or Ultrinium™ 733 fluid for large
diameter cable, which are not flammable and the SPR paradigm provides the lowest risk and the highest
reliability performance. The hazard classification chart below provides a taxonomy of 39 hazards associated
with injection. Of these 39 hazards 30 are non-trivial. Trivial risks are 9 of the 39 identified risks
where both the equipment risk values and the personnel risk values are less than $1. The 30 non-trivial
risks are plotted for the two paradigms in the Injection Hazard Ranking graph. There are at least two
significant conclusions from this analysis. First, utilizing the “sustained pressure; not flammable
fluid” paradigm eliminates entire classes of risks. The 30 non-trivial risks of the “unsustained pressure;
flammable fluid” paradigm are reduced to 18. Second, the 18 remaining non-trivial risks of the “sustained
pressure; not flammable fluid” paradigm are reduced by substantial factors over the earlier approach
in all but three cases. For those remaining three cases the risks are essentially identical.
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Entire classes of risks are eliminated (signified by an “X”) with utilization of the SPR paradigm, where
injection occurs only when the cable is not energized and prevents fluid coming into intimate contact
with cable components such as splices and terminations. Besides eliminating entire risk categories,
not using flammable fluid reduces fire and explosion risks by at least of a factor of 2 (signified by
a “÷2”) and the single visit – single switch™ approach, reduces electrical contact and driving risks
by at least a factor of 3 (signified by a “÷3”). The full 69-page hazard analysis is available from
the
 portal.
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Environmental (2.1) and toxicological (2.2) risks often come to circuit owners minds when they consider
rejuvenation technology. In fact these two classes of risk are too low to consider in the figure above.
To learn more view “Environmental & Safety
Frequently Asked Questions” or the full 69-page
hazard analysis available from the Novinium library.
CableCURE® is a registered trademark of UTILX Corporation.
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Faster
Independent laboratory tests demonstrate that Ultrinium injection technology increases the AC breakdown
performance of solid dielectric cables 87-times faster than the older ‘841 approach. That’s 87-times,
not 87%! After 7 days at 25°C in the experiment illustrated nearby, the AC breakdown strength of a cable
treated with Ultrinium™ technology (orange) had increased by 24 kV/mm (600 V/mil). Similar performance
increases take two years for the older approach (blue). Faster dielectric strength increases along with
chemistry tailored to address partial discharge (PD) allow post-failure treatment which dramatically
reduces the repeat-failure rate.
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Better
Independent laboratory tests confirm superior performance with accelerated aging conditions over 3 times
longer than the old (‘841) approach. These tests and others were used to extrapolate post-injection
performance of Ultrinium 732 fluid (orange) and ‘841 fluid (blue) for cool soils and light loads (solid
lines), and for warm soils with heavy loads (dashed lines) for 1/0 15kV cables in Illustration 2.
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In all cases, Ultrinium 732 fluid provides trouble-free performance (AC breakdown performance above
400 V/mil or 16 kV/mm) in excess of 40 years. While Novinium’s Tailored Injection provides roughly the
same performance for any conductor size and voltage class, the performance for the old approach will
vary depending upon these variables. 7-strand conductors, which suffer from an even greater under-supply
of fluid will not perform as well as the 1/0 benchmark of Illustration 2.
Data and estimates for other soil and loading conditions are available upon request. For a complete
explanation of the data and modeling used to generate Illustration 2, see Accelerated Aging of Rejuvenated Cables – Part I and Accelerated Aging of Rejuvenated Cables – Part II.
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Applicability Footprints
For each of the 5•Ps along the x-axis of the “Rehabilitation Applicability Footprints” illustrated nearby,
circuit owners have up to 4 rehabilitation options. Because the older approach (blue) was designed as
a preventative treatment and only provides reasonable life extension in lightly loaded cables in cool
soils, it should only be used in the least demanding applications in the lower right corner of the illustration.
Perficio™ 011 (blue-grey) is an improved version of the older technology and hence its operating envelope
is slightly larger than its predecessor.
State-of-the art tailored formulations™ utilizing Ultrinium™ 732 fluid and Ultrinium™ 733 fluid can
be applied at very high temperatures even for post-failure or problematic circuits. Of course, replacement
(olive) can be utilized over the complete strategic rehabilitation spectrum, but typically at a capital
cost two to ten times higher than cable rejuvenation.
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