Hydrogen energy, as a clean energy source, is one of the important forms of replacing fossil fuels in the future, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the most promising development direction for hydrogen energy applications. Different hydrogen production processes can lead to the presence of various trace impurities in hydrogen fuel, such as formaldehyde, formic acid, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water, methane, ethane, propane, ethylene, halides, sulfur compounds, and particulate matter, which can cause varying degrees of damage to the battery system and affect the safe operation of fuel cell vehicles. Therefore, extremely strict standards have been established for domestic and international hydrogen purity and trace impurity limits. Both ISO14687—2:2019 and GB/T 37244—2018 standards recommend Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to analyze some key impurities. After practice and improvement by our research group, it has been proven to be reliable and effective. In recent years, based on the principle of infrared spectroscopy, some emerging infrared spectroscopy technologies have been developed, including tunable semiconductor laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS), photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS), cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS) and cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS), breaking through the limitations of traditional infrared spectroscopy technologies such as light sources and lasers.It is expected to be applied in the future analysis of trace impurities in hydrogen fuel.This article summarizes the analysis methods of 8 types of impurities in hydrogen fuel and deeply explores the application progress of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy technology in analyzing these impurities. It summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of emerging infrared spectroscopy technology in trace gas analysis, and further prospects the methodological development trend of infrared spectroscopy.