Abstract
Electrolysis was carried out at 700−800 °C using solid oxide electrochemical cells with H2O−CO2−H2 mixtures at the Ni-YSZ cathode and air at the LSCF-GDC anode. (YSZ = 8 mol %, Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2, GDC = Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95, and LSCF = La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3). The cell electrolysis performance decreased only slightly for H2O−CO2 mixtures compared to H2O electrolysis and was much better than for pure CO22O and CO2 and production of H2 and CO with increasing electrolysis current density. Electrolyzers operated on 25% H2, 25% CO2, and 50% H2O at 800 °C and 1.3 V yielded a syngas production rate of 
7 sccm/cm2. The use of electrolytically produced syngas for producing renewable liquid fuels is discussed; an energy-storage cycle based on such liquid fuels is CO2-neutral, similar to hydrogen, and has the potential to be more efficient and easier to implement." electrolysis. Mass spectrometer measurements showed increasing consumption of H
In sum, as we have several times explained: Carbon Dioxide and Water can be electrolyzed to produce Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen. Those two components, mixed together, comprise "syngas" - the chemical combination which, we have extensively documented, can be readily generated from coal; and, once thus obtained, can be easily catalyzed to produce liquid hydrocarbons, up to, and including, gasoline.
And, it seems important to repeat a passage from the excerpt: "The use of electrolytically produced syngas for producing renewable liquid fuels is discussed; an energy-storage cycle based on such liquid fuels is CO2-neutral, similar to hydrogen, and has the potential to be more efficient ".
An energy cycle based on coal-use byproducts is "renewable", "CO2-neutral" and is likely to be "more efficient".
It seems clear, and, not just demonstrated but proven far beyond question, that coal can be converted into methanol, and into diesel and gasoline-equivalent fuels to supply our nearer-term liquid fuel needs. At the same time, the technology to employ the Carbon Dioxide by-product of our coal use, through sustainable biological and direct chemical means, toward that same end can be developed and deployed. Our coal could thus be conserved to then supply us, through it's established conversion technologies, as we have documented to be possible, feasible, practical and profitable, with the plastics and chemicals manufacturing raw materials that all of us, and all of our children, will want and need in the centuries to come.
Coal can do all of that.