Determination of the moisture content in wood chips of Scots pine and Norway spruce using Mantex Desktop Scanner based on dual energy X-ray absorptiometry

Abstract

There has been a longstanding interest in developing a fast and accurate method for measuring moisture content in wood. The gravimetric method that is commonly used today is a widely accepted industrial standard but it is time consuming. In this study, we tested and evaluated Mantex Desktop Scanner that is based on dual energy X-ray absorptiometry as a potential technique for fast and accurate determination of moisture content at different temperatures in wood chips of Pinus sylvestris, Picea abies and a variety of mixtures thereof. The results of the study give similar results as the gravimetric method when determining the moisture content in wood. They further show that there was no significant influence on the result if samples were measured while frozen or at room temperature.