Abstract Natural gas hydrate is one of the most potential carbon energy resources because of its tremendous reserves. Gas and water permeability of natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments (HBS) directly affects gas recovery from hydrate reservoirs and gas production efficiency. In this paper, we review the permeability of HBS with respect to its relevant factors and development in characterization. Hydrate morphology and distribution inherently affect the permeability, and are identified in both coarse- and fine-grained sediments. Measurement and estimation methods of permeability are discussed in four aspects: theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, laboratory experiment, and filed test. Research challenges to this subject are comprehensively discussed, and future prospects of research are addressed. We suggest that future research should focus on understanding hydrate formation and dissociation mechanism and their effect on the permeability in fine-grained sediments, obtaining reliable measurement results of the permeability, bridging the gap of permeability between laboratory samples and natural sediments, and highlighting multi-scale analysis on the permeability with appropriate parameters as well as developing models for safe and economically feasible gas production from HBS eventually.

中文翻译：

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含水合物沉积物的渗透率

摘要 天然气水合物储量巨大，是最具潜力的碳能源之一。含天然气水合物沉积物（HBS）的气水渗透率直接影响水合物储层的采气率和采气效率。在本文中，我们回顾了 HBS 的渗透性及其相关因素和表征的发展。水合物形态和分布固有地影响渗透率，并且在粗粒和细粒沉积物中均被识别。从理论分析与数值模拟、室内试验和现场试验四个方面论述了渗透率的测量与估算方法。全面讨论了该主题的研究挑战，并讨论了未来的研究前景。