The US National energy technology laboratory (NETL) has just launched the Energy data exchange (EDX), a knowledge-sharing network built to provide a single source for fossil energy-related datasets and the tools to use them. EDX is a common portal and toolset for accessing data generated by NETL researchers, other EDX users and outside agencies. EDX datasets include hundreds of fossil energy research projects and are designed to provide transparency to NETL programs and to inform federal, state, and local energy policy.
EDX also provides researchers with a workspace for collaboration. Public features, such as EDX tools and EDX groups, promote information sharing, technology development, and knowledge and technology transfer. EDX provides secure, tiered access to data sets ensuring that information is only shared with the correct partners. Open-access data is available to the public for download, fulfilling the EDX’s knowledge-transfer role.
One such research data set which is now in the public domain is the post-Macondo NETL study of the state of the art of well cementation. The six month literature search with input from a ‘bevy of industry experts’ culminated in a report concluding, in true researcher’s style, that ‘more research is needed.’
Pointers for such future work include cement placement and the use of tracers to monitor cement movement. NETL also found that ‘the conditions the cement encounters in the well often do not match the conditions under which it is tested in the lab,’ and suggest that thermal modeling of the wellbore may bring the lab closer to reality. The December 2012 paper on NETL’s cementation research can be downloaded here.
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