Posted April 25, 2012 in Blog
Hog fuel is a wood residue and waste product that is processed through a chipper or mill and produces coarse chips and clumps normally used for fuel. The hog fuel can also include bark, sawdust, planer shavings, wood chunks, fines, dirt, and in cold climates, ice. The mills need to dispose of this waste and typically use it as biomass fuel for a boiler, often in combination with natural gas.
Mills must dispose of wood waste from paper mills.
Price of natural gas is very low due to hydro-fracking, but mills still needs to dispose of the hog fuel, so they use it as a boiler fuel.
Hog fuel moisture varies widely. Accuracy of 1 to 2 % across the 30-65 % moisture range is acceptable as sample handling of grab samples can't provide any greater accuracy for lab comparative measurements.
If the hog fuel moisture is high and not detected, the boiler will not have sufficient temperatures to maintain optimal efficiency. Moisture detection allows them to increase natural gas input when hog fuel moisture is high.
Measurement of hog fuel moisture allows optimization of natural gas during boiler operation, resulting in very substantial savings.
The MCT460-WP NIR on-line moisture sensor is the leading choice for wood mills to monitor hog fuel moisture for optimal boiler operation. The rugged, accurate, and reliable MCT460-WP supplies alerts, alarms, analog outputs for control, and bright touchscreen interface for data archiving.