ABSTRACT
An impedance meter called the Chari’s impedance (CI) meter designed and developed by the first author was used to measure the two parameters, impedance and phase angle. A laptop computer was used to register data from the system, compute the calibration constants, and calculate the moisture content. A cylindrical acrylic tube, fitted with two sets of parallel-plate electrodes, serves as the test cell for moisture sensing. Measurement of MC for biofuel materials in the form of powders was also done using the CI meter using a parallel-plate system. The CI meter would also be useful to rapidly and nondestructively determine the MC in materials used as biofuels such as pine and hard wood chips, and powders such as pine and switchgrass.
