Trend analysis of academic research and technical development pertaining to gas hydrates

Recently, many countries have shown considerable interest in gas hydrates as an alternative energy source and have conducted many studies for exploring, drilling, and producing gas hydrates. In this paper, we investigate international R&D trend in gas hydrates in order to provide research direction by applying text clustering to the published papers and patent documents. In particular, our study examines research in the United States, where the most active research has been undertaken; Japan, a country that leads in technological development; and China, which has enormous resources of gas hydrates. This study delineates these countries’ expertise and changing R&D trends in gas hydrates. Our findings can provide insights for academic research and technical development regarding gas hydrates.