The goal of this project is to facilitate advances in hydrate applications through the formation of the U.S. Hydrate Database, thus permitting the submission and retrieval of high-quality hydrate data that include—but are not limited to—thermodynamic, structural, and geophysical data.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, Colorado 80305
Methane in natural hydrate is known to be a major, dynamic constituent of the global carbon cycle. Research activity and interest in methane hydrates has significantly increased over the past several years due to uncertainty of its resource potential for natural gas, implications to global climate change and seafloor stability issues. As a result of this flurry of research activity, the amount of hydrate data being generated by research organizations, universities, and National Laboratories across the United States has become very overwhelming.
During 1900-1910, there were only two refereed hydrate publications, and any interested worker could access both archival journals in which they were published. However, during 1990-2000 there were 3,010 refereed hydrate publications, extrapolating to over 8,000 additional hydrate-related publications in the current decade. Unfortunately, there is currently not an orderly and efficient means of readily accessing this volume of valuable information. As such, this project seeks to develop a publicly accessible database of hydrate information and data generated by research groups within or funded by entities in the United States.
There is a significant amount of hydrate-related data that has been or is being generated by research groups within the United States. In addition, there is a significant amount of research that remains to be done to address questions related to hydrate location, characterization, understanding, and use. The accumulation of and provision of access to existing data is a critical part of efficiently and effectively conducting future research on hydrate-related issues. By providing a single location for access to available hydrate data, this project holds the potential to enhance the capabilities of scientists in the U.S. and around the world, to determine critical hydrate research paths and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of future research activities.
The U.S. Hydrate Database stores information on a relational Oracle based system with Web-Oracle infrastructure for Web-based dissemination. It contains some 120 physical properties of hydrates, as well as evaluated experimental data, allowing for continuous updating and reliability analysis. The database is constructed so that it may be connected with international databases through a portal, which is under development from ODATA.
The “ Clathrate Hydrate Physical Property Database [externall site]” has been created and is now available.
This project has been completed and the final report is available below under "Additional Information".
$750,000
$0
NETL – Sandra McSurdy (sandra.mcsurdy@netl.doe.gov or 412-386-4533
NIST – Michael Frenkel (Michael.Frenkel@nist.gov or 303-497-3952)
In addition to the information provided here, a full listing of project related publications and presentations as well as a listing of funded students can be found in the Methane Hydrate Program Bibliography [PDF].
Final Project Report [PDF-2.41MB] - October, 2009
Clathrate Hydrate Physical Property Database [external site]
Year 2 Annual Report [PDF-1.00MB] - October 1, 2007 - September 20, 2008
2008 Hydrate Peer Review [PDF-1.28MB]
Phase 1 Final Report [PDF-921KB] - October 1, 2006 - September 20, 2007
Presentation
Kroenlein K., Löwner R., Wang W., Diky V., Smith T., Muzny C. D., Chirico R. D., Kazakov A., Sloan E. D., and Frenkel M., Standardization and Software Infrastructure for Gas Hydrate Data Communications. 6th International Conference on Gas Hydrates, Vancouver, 2008.