Green Wood Chips Moisture

Green wood chips have been traditionally considered a waste product and have been historically used as a source for pulp used to make paper and as an organic mulch in landscaping. Neither use has required a tight control of green wood chips moisture.

Recently, however, green wood chips have become popular as a biomass fuel. As a fuel, it has forced exploding growth in the biomass furnace industry. To work most efficiently, furnace manufacturers have had to identify and define optimum green wood chips moisture. Fortunately, despite what might have been a difficult transition from a waste product to a biomass fuel, it is possible to control moisture in green wood chips with existing technology.

Why It Is Important to Control Moisture in Green Wood Chips

The energy available from green wood chips is directly proportional to the moisture in the chips. To make the fuel in green wood chips available, biomass furnaces must first convert the moisture in the wood chips to steam. The higher the amount of moisture in the wood chips, the more energy required to convert it to steam before the fuel is available. To ensure the efficacy of their furnaces, manufacturers build their furnaces to operate at a very specific range of green wood chips moisture.

MoistTech Knows Moisture

For more than 40 years, MoistTech has provided industries worldwide the best instrumentation available to measure moisture during the production of various materials. The IR-3000 near infrared (NIR) online moisture sensor was developed after analyzing the limitations of existing moisture measurement systems, collecting decades of field data from a multitude of industries needing to measure product moisture, and soliciting feedback from those directly involved in the production process.

MoistTech’s IR-3000 Exceeds Expectations for Moisture Measurement Instrumentation

Being built to outperform existing moisture measurement systems, the IR-3000 exceeds most expectations for moisture measurement instrumentation. Its features include:

• Non-contact, continuous, real-time moisture measurement
• Factory precalibration and maintenance-free operation
• State-of-the-art communication protocols (via laptop computer, PC-based touch screen operator interface, or plant-wide network by RS232/422/485 and Ethernet TCP/IP. I/O includes 3 x analog outputs 4-20mA isolated, self-powered)
• Rugged durability suitable for installation in any industrial environment

Contact MoistTech for More Information

One of our moisture specialists would be more than happy to answer your questions and provide additional information about MoistTech’s IR-3000 moisture measurement system. Contact us today!