Science glossary film: Coke

A fuel produced by heating coal in the absence of air. This removes volatile tars and oils, leaving a solid with a high proportion of pure carbon. Coke burns more efficiently and cleanly than coal, and has been an important fuel for hundreds of years, used in locomotives, blast furnaces, and other engines of the industrial revolution and beyond.

This removes volatile tars and oils, leaving a solid with a high proportion of pure carbon. Coke burns more efficiently and cleanly than coal, and has been an important fuel for hundreds of years, used in locomotives, blast furnaces, and other engines of the industrial revolution and beyond.