Precision measurement of forest harvesting residue moisture change and dry matter losses by constant weight monitoring

摘要

The moisture content of forest-wood chips is one of the most important quality factors for the rapidly growing bioenergy sector. Rising transportation costs and increased use of forest biomass for energy are forcing biomass suppliers towards better moisture-content management in the supply chain. In the literature, numerous studies on natural drying of forest biomass have been conducted based on traditional sampling of piles or weighing. The latest methodology for moisture-change monitoring has beenconstant weighing of piles in racks built on load cells. In this study, seven piles of logging residues were monitored for between 35 and 85 weeks in Finnish climatic conditions. In addition, two small piles which imitated drying in stand conditions weremonitored for 6 weeks. After 8 months of drying, a remarkable dry-matter loss was observed in the logging residue piles.