Abstract The desire to use natural gas as an automotive fuel at reduced pressures for both safety and compression cost reasons, but without compromising the range of the vehicles, has led to the investigation of the possibility of enhancing onboard storage with the aid of adsorbents. Natural gas ideally in an adsorbent material will have a density intermediate between that of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the compressed natural gas (CNG). Thus, adsorbed natural gas (ANG) will have a very high energy density without the need of low temperature (LNG) or the need of high pressure tanks (CNG). While in principle this is an ideal storage scheme for natural gas as an automotive fuel, one has to find or develop the proper adsorbent material. ANG technology allows storing big amounts of natural gas at a relatively low pressure (40–60 bars) at room temperature in a relatively thin walled tank filled with adsorbent. This level of pressure allows refueling the tank using simple and cheap equipment or sometimes refueling directly from NG pipelines. At present, activated carbon appears with the greatest potential for storing natural gas at pressures not to exceed 500 psi. In addition, high performance carbons tend to have high densities. Consequently, the high density carbons will occupy a smaller volume in the storage vessel. This paper reviews the storage technologies for natural gas. Technical comparison is made between storage systems for adsorbent, liquefied and compressed natural gas and cost estimates. We discuss carbon adsorbents, design of storage tanks, cost and safety.