The results of experimental research concerning the assessment of the permeability of porous materials with respect to gas flow are presented in this paper. The conducted research applied to, among others, chars (acquired from the UCG thermal process) with an anisotropic gap-porous structure and - for comparative purposes - model materials such as pumice and polyamide agglomerates. The research was conducted with the use of a special test stand that enables the measuring of gas permeability with respect to three flow orientations compared with symmetric cubic-shaped samples. The research results show the explicit impact of the flow direction on the permeability of chars, which results from their anisotropic internal structures. The suitability of calculation methods employed to calculate the hydrodynamics of the gas flow through porous materials was also evaluated.