Energy and environment are the two major themes of today's social development. Selfpreheating combustion technology has opened a new path for the directional transformation of coal nitrogen, achieved the inhibition of NO x generation in the combustion in-situ reaction, better realized the organic integration of efficient combustion of pulverized coal and low NO x emission, and showed stronger advantages in the denitration efficiency, environmental compatibility and investment and operation cost. This study first introduces the basic principle of self-preheating combustion technology, including the principles of self-preheating, the principles of preheated fuel combustion and the NO x formation mechanism. Subsequently, the research progress in reducing NO x emission by self-preheating combustion technology in 30 kW bench scale text rigs and MW grade pilot-scale text rigs, and the industrial application of self-preheating combustion technology are respectively illustrated. Finally, the corresponding conclusions are given, and the future development direction of self-preheating combustion technology is prospected.