The educational resource shows information about the concept of chemical energy: chemical energy is what is produced in chemical reactions. An energy cell or a battery possess this type of energy. The gas burning in a cigarette lighter shows how the chemical energy contained in the gas is transformed into light and heat.

Energy from fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) comes from substances which originated from the accumulation, millons of years ago, of large quantities of remains of living beings at the bottom of lakes and other sedimentary depressions. By clicking on the following controls you can learn more about each one of these fuels.