Wood chips settled by dry matter can be measured in two ways: with a weighbridge and a drying oven, which is the reference method, or with a humimeter BMA-2 on a measured sample. The figures below come from the manufacturer and rest on stated assumptions, so they are worth reading together with those assumptions rather than on their own.
| humimeter BMA-2 ATRO compared with a weighbridge and drying oven | |
|---|---|
| Investment cost | more than ten times lower |
| Cost per measurement at 500 measurements a year | almost ten times lower |
| Total time of a measurement | a few minutes, against at least 24 hours |
On those assumptions the manufacturer reports a saving of 80 % in time and personnel cost and of 96 % in maintenance and energy. The difference in total time comes from the reference method itself: oven drying takes at least 24 hours, which is why it documents a delivery after the fact rather than at the weighbridge.
The accredited testing laboratorySchaller runs a testing laboratory meeting the requirements of EN ISO/IEC 17025. In 2016 it was accredited for the determination of water content according to EN ISO 18134-2, the oven-drying method for solid biofuels. The BMA-2 was developed together with that laboratory, and the manufacturer cites it in the "Bioenergy 2020" and "Holzforschung Austria" reports; the measuring method is covered by a patent registered in the European Union. |
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The money saved is the smaller part. The larger one is that a result available in minutes can be used at intake, while the lorry is still on site - a 24-hour result cannot. A measurement on a 12 litre sample also averages over a large volume, which matters with a material as uneven as wood chips, and leaves little room for manipulation.
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