Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Determination of moisture content (mc) in pine wood chips is of interest to the pulp and paper industry. The gravimetric method used nowadays is reliable, but it is slow and labours. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the accuracy and precision when determining mc in pine wood chips with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Also to see if the same algorithm could be used for both spruce and pine chips. This new method was evaluated and compared with the results achieved with the gravimetric method that was used as a reference. In this study 70 samples of pine wood chips ranging different mc were used. Mc was determined by both methods and results were analysed by regression analysis. This study showed positive results; standard error of estimate was 2.01%, standard deviation was 0.45%, and R2 value was 98%. These results were similar to an earlier study conducted with spruce wood chips. However the correlation between both methods lacked of accuracy when the mc was low. These results showed that it is needed to use a separate algorithm for pine wood chips.