Determination of moisture in biomass by coulometric Karl Fischer titration

The article presents works on the use of coulometric Karl Fischer titration with evaporation for determining water content in biomass. Six types of plant biomass samples were tested: ground coffee obtained as brewed waste, wheat straw, hay, walnut shells and hazel and spruce wood chips. Tests of water content in all obtained products were carried out and their results were compared with two other methods used as standard for biomass moisture testing, i.e. by using a drying balance method and the distillation method. All the methods were found to be in good agreement with the results obtained for the samples tested. The distillation method turned out to be the least useful, as it gave results that differed most from the other methods. The analysis time using this technique is long, it is quite laborious to perform and is not automated. The fastest technique is the method utilizing a drying balance, but it is less precise than the coulometric method. The results obtained with this method may be overestimated as the measure of water content in the tested sample is the loss of mass, which may be related not only to the presence of water, but also to other volatile substances released during the test. On the other hand, the coulometric Karl Fischer titration method is selective and only the water evaporated from the sample is determined during the analysis, even if other volatile substances are released from the sample under the test conditions. The coulometric Karl Fischer titration method with sample evaporation in an oven showed the best precision. It is easy to make and automated. It was found that this method can be successfully used in biomass research. The water content in all obtained biomass samples ranged between 8 and 10.5% (m/m). In order to investigate the possibility of determining the water content in a wider measuring range, the biomass samples were dried in a laboratory dryer for 4 hours at 105 degrees C, and additionally, model samples with different water content were prepared using ground coffee as a matrix. The prepared samples were tested with coulometric Karl Fischer titration with evaporation method. The conducted research confirmed that the method of coulometric Karl Fischer titration with evaporation is perfect for testing biomass samples. It is characterized by a very good repeatability in the tested range, from 0.7 to 75% (m/m).