Fuel Imports by Country

This chart shows Fuel Imports by Country.

A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases chemical or nuclear energy as heat or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but has since also been applied to other sources of heat energy such as nuclear energy.

The heat energy released by reactions of fuels is converted into mechanical energy via a heat engine. Other times the heat itself is valued for warmth, cooking, or industrial processes, as well as the illumination that comes with combustion. Fuels are also used in the cells of organisms in a process known as cellular respiration, where organic molecules are oxidized to release usable energy.

Hydrocarbons and related oxygen-containing molecules are by far the most common source of fuel used by humans, but other substances, including radioactive metals, are also utilized.Fuels are contrasted with other substances or devices storing potential energy, such as those that directly release electrical energy or mechanical energy.

Chemical fuels are substances that release energy by reacting with substances around them, most notably by the process of combustion. Most of the chemical energy released in combustion was not stored in the chemical bonds of the fuel, but in the weak double bond of molecular oxygen.

Chemical fuels are divided in two ways. First, by their physical properties, as a solid, liquid or gas. Secondly, on the basis of their occurrence: primary and secondary.