The shortage of freshwater boosts the development of seawater desalination technology. As a novel method, the hydrate based desalination technology has been put forward for decades and achieved considerable development in the past years. This review focuses on the experimental progress at the aspects of the hydrate former choice, formation promotion and ion removal efficiency and conceptive innovation of hydrate separation and energy utilization. It should be noted that gaseous hydrate former with low formation pressure and insoluble liquid hydrate former are worthy for further study. Besides, the water migration caused by propane deserves to be investigated much more deeply for the potential value of wide application. Moreover, the utilization proposal of LNG cold energy brings more possibility of commercial application. In a word, the hydrate based desalination technology is hopefully an environment friendly, low-cost and widely used desalination technology in the near future. (C) 2019 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China. and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.