A&A FRATELLI PARODI DIELECTRIC ESTERS: THE FRONTRUNNER OF SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability has been one of the core values of A&A Fratelli Parodi SpA since the company started operating, way back in 1955. The company has been refining vegetable oils and developing natural based materials at its Italian production plants located in Campomorone (Genoa), Inveruno (Milan) and Castenedolo (Brescia) ever since.
However, the Parodi family also soon introduced new methods and products, the result of a philosophy based on a ground-breaking use of Green Chemistry and moving forward to use of feedstocks based on recycling and up-cycling in a pattern of circular economy to guarantee the maximum grade of sustainability and a reduced carbon footprint emission of the finished products, compared to the competition.
Currently A&A Fratelli Parodi SpA is part of the Augusto Parodi Group (APG) which controls several companies located in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and other countries.
APG is organized in 3 production divisions:
Industrial
dealing with vegetable liquids for industrial applications like lubricants, solvent/carriers, paints, coatings, plasticizer, quenching and insulating liquids. The latter one includes natural esters, synthetic esters, blended esters, low-viscosity esters for capacitors and for electro-erosion.
Advanced biofuels
production of advanced biodiesel, glycerine, and sustainable distillation by-products.
Life Science
production of natural actives for cosmetics application, cosmetics and personal care formulation and production, microalgae and extracts, and biotechnology
Bio-based Insulating Esters
Focusing on the insulating liquids mineral oil from crude was for more than a century the only option for oil immersed transformers, but its availability is expected to be extremely critical in near future, instead natural ester availability is unlimited. For this and other reasons the number of transformers and other electrical equipment filled with ester fluids are growing exponentially worldwide.
The indisputable advantages of ester fluids, sometimes called vegetable oil, in transformer technology are represented by significant improvements of fire safety [1], environmental friendliness [2], sustainability [2] and extension of transformer life and overloadability [3].
A&A Fratelli portfolio of insulating esters is wider than any other competitor since it includes:
Paryol Electra 7426® natural ester
from high-oleic-content sunflower, according to IEC 62770. The naturally balanced composition of saturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated fatty acids imparts peculiar properties not found in other similar natural esters, as for example the extraordinary oxidation stability and the negligible production of stray gases.
Paryol Tras 24® synthetic ester
according to IEC 61099. It is a vegetable-derived dielectric fluid being the base molecule a hindered synthetic polyol ester. It holds very good oxidation stability even in case of high temperature applications, being specifically suitable for transformers, tap-changers and other similar electrical apparatus to be used in specific applications with high demanding thermal and chemical performance.
Paryol Agrilec 6312® blended ester
according to IEC 63012. It is a mixture of a synthetic and a natural ester. Viscosity, together with biodegradability, is a key parameter to choose Paryol Agrilec 6312®. Thanks to its relatively low viscosity its migration speed into the transformer solid insulation is higher than that of both natural and synthetic esters.



James Reid holds a MSc Reliability Engineering & Safety Management from Heriot Watt University and a BEng Chemical Engineering from University of Edinburgh. He has been a chartered Chemical Engineer with the IChemE since 2002 and is also a member of ASTM. Based in the UK, James leads the technical applications team providing global support for all the ester-based products manufactured by global specialty materials company M&I Materials, including the MIDEL range of dielectric liquids. Prior to joining the technical team at M&I Materials in 2019, James has over two decades experience in technical and operational management roles with major UK utility, leading international chemical, and specialist oil companies.
Jean SANCHEZ is senior transformer engineer at EDF, French main generation utility, mostly on investigations, tests and its associated diagnosis, Factory Acceptance Tests, HV bushings, fleet assessments. He’s involved in IEC and CIGRE working groups. He completed a PhD degree on power transformers fault diagnosis in 2011 with a French power transformer reparation factory, TSV.
Riccardo Actis was born in 1969 He holds a degree in mechanical engineering, obtained from Polytechnic University of Turin in 1995. Today he is the Global Operation Manager of the On-Site Service Department at Sea Marconi, with more than 25 years of experience in organization and follow-up of on-site work activities, in Italy, France, Spain, and other countries (KSA, Argentina, Uruguay, Japan). Riccardo has a deep knowledge of condition-based maintenance, as well as treatment and decontamination techniques of insulating liquids.
Vojko Mrdic has been working as applications engineer in transformer testing group at DV Power, a well-known manufacturer of test and measurement equipment for electric power industry. His responsibilities include development of new methods for transformer testing, providing technical support to DV Power customers, as well as performing on-site field testing. Before joining DV Power 13 years ago, he had been working at the large apparatus manufacturer Energoinvest RAOP for 1 year as a junior engineer in circuit breakers and instrument transformers development department. Vojko has a BSc diploma degree in electrical engineering from the University of East Sarajevo.
Roberto Fernández is an experienced Electrical Engineer who has spent most of his career on the transformer design field and R&D activities focused on the magneto-electric and thermal design for a wide range of transformer applications. He is member of the IEC, CIGRE and several national and international working groups. He is currently the Application Technical Leader at Cargill Bioindustrial.
Field Service engineer since 1976 working for Merlin-Gerin on GIS Switchgear, Schneider Electric Equipment, JST Tranformateurs , following in SIEMENS as African Aera sales Manager and JST Maintenance as business development
Vander Tumiatti is the founder and owner of SEA MARCONI GROUP (since 1968 – www.seamarconi.com), Torino, Italy, an international company that is involved in research, technologies, products, and services for energy and environment. He has developed BAT and BEP Sustainable Solutions for Life Cycle Management (LCM) of insulating liquids and transformers focalized on inventory, control, diagnosis, decontamination, depolarization (DBDS, TCS, and polar compounds) and dehalogenation / detoxification (PCBs/POPs). He holds more than 40 international patents and is the author of many international technical and scientific publications. He has been the Assistant Secretary of IEC TC10 from 2000 to 2024. He is also a member of several international groups, with major participation in technical normative activities (CEN, IEC, CIGRE, IEEE). In 2009 June, he received – “1906 Award”, the IEC’s award for “the precious contribution to the understanding of the potentially corrosive behaviour of mineral insulating oil used in power transformers and for his discoveries, recognized worldwide, in the development of diagnostic chemical analyses”. He also received the “Alessandro Volta” award as expert since 1978 in the standardization activities. He was the coordinator of European and national research projects in the field of circular and granular bioeconomy (BIOENPRO®). He also inventor of My Transfo Meeting since 2002 (www.mytransfo.com)