NIR spectroscopy is a very suitable technique within the pulp and paper industry and has been used for many years. The popularity of using NIR in pulp and paper applications is due to its non destructive nature, the simplicity of using the instrument and the high throughput.
The sensitivity towards the O-H, N-H, C-H and S-H absorbance, makes NIR technology very useful for monitoring of different attributes such as:
Moisture content in incoming timber
Lignin content in wood
Wood species classification
ISO brightness prediction
Characterization of coating
Kappa number prediction