Measuring the moisture of wood chips - Berthold Technologies GmbH & Co.KG

Instruments for an ideal cooking process

The Berthold measuring system LB 568 provides an online and real-time moisture measurement of digester-fed wood chips. The LB 568 generates multiple microwaves in a wide frequency range, emitted by an antenna below the conveyor. The microwaves penetrate the wood chips and are received by a second antenna above the belt. When penetrating the wood chips, the microwave signal‘s characteristics change in terms of attenuation and phase shift. These changes directly correlate to the wood chip moisture. Fluctuations in the layer height and bulk density can be compensated for by using a radiometric area weight measurement. The complete system thus provides a stable and reliable moisture reading. The microwave moisture meters are installed on the feeder belt to the digester. The electronics for data evaluation are installed close to the antennas. Depending on the representativeness of the sampling and the measuring conditions, a typical accuracy of better than +/- 1.0 % moisture can be achieved.

Customer benefits

Accurate moisture leads to accurate solids addition leads to accurate digester chemical charge
Measurement independent of wood species
Operates reliably at moisture levels up to and above 50%
Transmission measurement provides representative sample as opposed to traditional „surface only“measurements

Features

Installs around existing conveyor belts
Non-contact measurement
FCC compliant
State-of-the-art microwave transmission technology measuring the material cross-section
High measurement repeatability