Methods to determine the dry matter content of roundwood deliveries

In pulp production, the dry matter content of pulpwood affects debarking and pulping. For pulpwood to be traded due to its dry weight, a prerequisite is that the measurement of dry be done quickly and accurately. No current method fulfils these requirements, although there are different methods that have the potential to determine the dry matter content in wood. These techniques include radar, gamma rays, dichromatic photon absorptiometry, computed tomography, near infrared (NIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and radio frequency (RF). A literature review showed that several of the techniques can determine the dry matter content with an acceptable error. Several of the methods cannot handle frozen or semifrozen samples, which disqualifies them as an acceptable method. NIR, dichromatic photon absorptiometry, and RF techniques might have the potential to meet the requirements of fast measurement with high accuracy.