In order to meet requirements of industrial and daily application, it is necessary to conduct purification and treatment of raw natural gas. Mercaptan is a kind of impurities in natural gas difficult to remove. Up to now, conducted is little research on natural gas mercaptan removal. Summarized are several major mercaptan removal methods, analyzed are mechanisms, processes and advantages and disadvantages of physical, chemical and mixed solvent methods, reviewed is research progress of molecular sieve and activated carbon methods and introduced are biological method and membrane separation methods. In general conditions, solvent method is mainly used if mercaptan content is not high and combination technology of solvent method and adsorption method is commonly used if mercaptan content is high. Finally predicted is the future development direction of mercaptan removal technology.