With the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutral steadily advancing, the global carbon emission standards for internal combustion engines are becoming more and more stringent, and how to break through the problem of high carbon emissions caused by the conventional fossil fuels is particularly important for the future development of transportation. At present, the use of zero-carbon and low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia and methanol is a good choice to replace traditional fossil fuels, and global companies are competing to develop zero-carbon and low-carbon internal combustion engines in order to occupy a place in the field. In order to promote the rapid development of zero-carbon and low-carbon internal combustion engines, the physical and chemical characteristics of hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, ethanol and natural gas are introduced, and the latest application progress of these fuels in internal combustion engines are analyzed, and corresponding suggestions are given for their future development.