Moisture Metrics Project
This research added to the understanding of moisture, as it relates to the processing of grass biomass in a commercial setting. It added to the understanding by reinforcing the idea that each grass species has its own unique characteristics as it relates to moisture and processing. And while sometimes these results were not able to be measured according to the parameters of this test project, it was an attribute distinctly noticeable by the end of this project, and discovered by the equipment operators themselves. Key to this discovery was the fact that while a bale of grass may test at a specific moisture percentage with a handheld probe, the actual moisture content within the cell walls of the plant matter may vary significantly from that reading. This difference arises from the ability of some plant species to retain the moisture more within the cell walls, as opposed to other plant species simply holding the moisture on the outer surface of the stalks. This of course is coupled with the methodologies used by the individual landowner in the handling of the biomass, specifically, time of harvest and storage technique. However, it still comes down to different species retaining moisture in different ways according to their cell wall structure. While this may not seem significant, it is of critical importance when you combine that varying trait, with the “action” of processing it. The testing criteria initially established by this project, was in the end inadequate to document these traits thoroughly, and will require future, more detailed projects to adequately document it. The project approach, and the resulting data contained within this report, failed to give us the conclusive data we thought we would eventually arrive at when this project was completed. However, the efforts put forth by this project , and the lack of hard data using our approach, does enable future projects to have a much better understanding of how to approach this subject from a technical standpoint. We have learned that the study must go deeper initially, back to the acreage where the grass was grown, and must include all attributes and inputs beginning there. This data must be logged and correlated along the entire lifecycle of the biomass, from beginning to end, to enable us to fully understand how moisture and specific species of grasses interact when combined with the action of commercial processing.