[Gasification] heat required for drying

[MMBTUPR at aol.com]

               to   Gasification List      from    Lewis L Smith

Ref the terms "free" versus "molecular bound" water.

I recall from my biomass days that we measured the water content of grasses 
by heating a sample of the grass until dry in a small oven. This gave us an 
"oven dry" sample which was then weighed. This weight was subtracted from that of 
the original material, and the difference was divided by the latter to give 
an estimate of the percent H20 in the harvested [or sun-dried] grass. Such 
information was of course essential for making boiler efficiency calculations and 
for other purposes.

I was told by one of the persons performing these tests that the oven only 
extracted the intercellular water, not the intracellular water, so the dried 
sample was really only 94% "dry". I eventually came to ignore this distinction in 
my calculations as everyone else did, and it made no difference of importance 
for our purposes.

Was our intercellular H2O what you call "free" water, and our intracellular 
what you call "molecular bound" ?

Cordially. End of message.