Coal is one of the most essential and popular resources for survival in Minecraft. You exploit coal in the form of ore blocks and use it for smelting and cooking works. But coal is not the only fuel in this game. Here are the 5 best fuels to alternate coal in smelting work.

#1. Lava Bucket

Lava is one of the best fuels to smelt items and cook food in Minecraft. You can exploit it underground in the Nether and the Overworld biome. Its burning effect lasts over 20,000 ticks which is longer than that of coal by 4,000 ticks.

To make a lava bucket, Minecraft players need to fill the empty bucket with lava. To use the lava bucket for smelting in this game, you place the bucket under the item you want to smelt. After the smelting process, you can take the empty bucket to fill it with new lava.
Use a Lava Bucket to smelt items.

#2. Dried Kelp Block

Dried plants can also be used for burning and smelting in Minecraft. It's one of the best fuels to alternate coal in this game. Making dried kelp is really easy when you have a working kelp farm.

You can harvest the kelp and dry it within the furnace, smoker, or bonfire. You place the kelp in the right cooking slot before adding lava, coal, or any other form of fuel. A dried kelp block can burn for 4,000 ticks.
Dried Kelp is an alternative fuel in the game.

#3. Blaze Rods

You can also use Blaze Rods to alternate coal in smelting and cooking in Minecraft. A single blaze rod lasts 2,400 ticks to burn out. To get this material, you need to kill the hostile mob Blaze inside the Nether Fortresses.

Blaze rods have many other uses. For example, you need this item to build the Eyes of Ender for accessing the End City. In addition, Minecraft players also need it for creating the brewing stand and making potions.

Use the Blaze Rod to burn and smelt.

#4. Wood

Wood is also one of the best fuels for smelting in Minecraft. You can collect wood or use wooden items to burn and smelt things. Though the burning effect of wooden blocks does not last long, it's one of the most popular fuels in this game that can be collected easily.

You can find woods and get wood blocks almost everywhere in Minecraft. It spawns in a lot of biomes and places, such as mountains, jungles, taiga, swamps, savannahs, etc. You should cut high trees to farm wood faster.

Wood is a very popular fuel in Minecraft.

#5. Bamboo

Bamboo can be harvested in Minecraft jungles. If you run out of coal and other prior fuels, you should go to harvest bamboo in a nearby jungle to smelt or cook. If you live near a bamboo forest or have a big bamboo farm, this plant can become your main fuel.

Moreover, you can use bamboo to craft the scaffoldings and sticks. Bamboo is the main food of pandas in Minecraft. So, you can use it to breed Pandas in the game. Apart from jungles, loot chests and fishing also give you this resource.

You can collect bamboo in the wild or grow it on your farm.

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