This paper presents a unified simple correlation for estimating specific chemical exergy of solid and liquid fuels on dry basis. The specific chemical exergy of a dry fuel was split into two contributions: chemical of exergies of organic matter and inorganic matter, respectively. To estimate chemical exergy of organic matter, a correlation for estimating standard entropy of organic matter of solid and liquid fuels was derived using 162 data points. A system of linear equations for estimating the numbers of moles of selected inorganic compounds from ash analysis data was established for estimating chemical exergy of inorganic matter. Statistical comparison shows that both chemical exergies of inorganic matter and ash can be properly neglected compared with the specific chemical exergy of dry solid and liquid fuels. The validation shows that the unified correlation is reliable and accurate. The method and results presented in this paper can be adopted to develop correlations for estimating specific chemical exergy of solid and liquid fuels based on various reference environmental models. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.