With the development of society, the energy crisis has become increasingly prominent, which greatly affects the sustainable development of the economy of various countries. Industrial energy consumption accounts for more than 70% of China’s total energy consumption, of which more than 50% is converted to industrial waste heat, and recyclable waste heat resources account for about 60% of the total waste heat resources, while China’s current utilization rate of industrial waste heat only reaches about 30%. The development of renewable energy and recovery of low-grade waste heat in industry is the key to solve the problem. As a type of volumetric expander with full flow expansion, the screw expander is extensively applied in the industrial waste heat recovery and geothermal energy generation industry because of its effective utilization of low enthalpy energy. Improving the performance of the screw expander as the core, the paper concludes and summarizes the research status of the leakage, rotor geometry, sealing and lubrication, processing and manufacturing, which can affect the performance of the screw expander. In addition, it also introduces the application status and potential utilization of screw expander.