NIST Develops Database on Gas Hydrate Properties

October 26, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS

The database contains approximately 12,000 individual data points for about 150 compounds spanning 400 different chemical systems.

The information includes phase equilibria (proportions of solid, liquid and gas phases in a material at a given temperature and pressure) and thermophysical property information, such as thermal conductivity.

Sometimes described as "flammable ice," hydrates consist of water molecules that create cages around "guest molecules" such as methane, which is one carbon atom bonded with four hydrogen atoms - a principal component of natural gas.

Vast stores of hydrates exist in subsurface sediments of permafrost and deep oceans and are considered a potential energy resource, according to NIST.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the total amount of carbon captured in methane hydrate, worldwide, is at least twice the total amount held in fossil fuels.

The flux of hydrates in the environment may play a role in the global carbon cycle and long-term climate patterns, experts said.

The NIST online interface also provides electronic access to scientific results from the 2002 Mallik research well in Canada, an international geophysical experiment exploring the properties of naturally occurring hydrates and the feasibility of using them as energy resources.

The new database will be useful for climate modelers, researchers studying the potential recovery of hydrates for practical applications and the petroleum industry, which is interested in preventing unprocessed hydrates from infiltrating natural gas pipelines, according to NIST.

NIST developed the database in association with the Committee on Data for Science and Technology. The National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided funding.

The database is available at http://gashydrates.nist.gov.

Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).