Natural Gas Hydrates as a Bridge Fuel: From Reservoir Characterization to Low-Emission Production

Natural gas hydrates are crystalline compounds that form under low-temperature, high-pressure conditions in marine sediments and permafrost. As the lowest-carbon fossil resource per unit of useful energy, methane from hydrates is increasingly studied as a bridge clean fuel that can displace coal and oil while renewable capacity scales up. Their strategic value depends on development pathways that minimise lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions, by eliminating fugitive methane and pairing production with permanent CO₂ storage through CO₂–CH₄ hydrate replacement. The past decade has delivered substantial progress across drilling, logging, laboratory work, and pilot tests, yet hydrate-bearing reservoirs remain highly heterogeneous. Critical uncertainties persist in reservoir identification, occurrence modes, saturation estimation, production behaviour, geomechanical stability, and emission control.This Research Topic advances the science and engineering of natural gas hydrates as a transitional clean fuel, consolidating progress in reservoir characterisation, saturation estimation, integrated evaluation, and the technologies that align hydrate development with decarbonisation. Key bottlenecks include limited resolution in identifying hydrate intervals, uncertainty in saturation estimation, weak integration across seismic, acoustic, electrical and logging datasets, incomplete understanding of coupled thermal, hydraulic, mechanical and chemical processes, and few reliable methods to quantify and prevent methane leakage and seabed instability.We invite theoretical, methodological, experimental, numerical, and field-based contributions, including interdisciplinary work, that improve prediction accuracy, reduce subsurface uncertainty, and strengthen low-emission development strategies. Contributions framing hydrate development within the low-carbon energy transition, such as comparisons with other clean fuels, CCS integration, or net-zero-compatible pathways, are especially welcome.Relevant themes:- Reservoir identification, saturation estimation, and occurrence modes- Rock physics, petrophysics, and geological controls on accumulation- Seismic, acoustic, electrical, and electromagnetic methods- Integrated geophysical and logging interpretation- Laboratory experiments and numerical simulation- Production behaviour, monitoring, and geomechanical response- CO₂–CH₄ replacement and integrated carbon storage- Fugitive methane control and lifecycle GHG assessmentOffshore and permafrost systems are both in scope. Eligible article types include original research, review-style syntheses, and method papers that advance the evaluation of hydrate-bearing reservoirs as part of a sustainable energy future. Topic editors: Lin Liu, Linqi Zhu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80787/natural-gas-hydrates-as-a-bridge-fuel-from-reservoir-characterization-to-low-emission-production