We submit this article to confirm that both methane and methanol can be derived from Carbon Dioxide, and that the technology for accomplishing the transmutation is not only widely-known, but is being reduced to practice in multiple international venues.
Note, as well, in the brief excerpt below, that the British researchers are utilizing, as are others we've cited, "photocatalysis" to effect the synthesis - just as green plants use sunlight to synthesize CO2 into useful substances.
As follows:
"The UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is providing £167,530 (US$336,000) in funding for an 18-month research project that aims to develop an efficient, inexpensive aerogel photocatalytic diode that will reduce carbon dioxide and generate methane and methanol for use as fuels."
Two points:
First, further reading will reveal that the CO2 in this scenario is first converted into gaseous compounds comparable to the "syngas" produced from coal.
Second, this British process, as others we've cited, uses an artificial photosynthesis (i.e., "photocatalytic", as above - JtM) to accomplish the transmutation of CO2.
Just like trees and our other leafy friends. We can employ the by-products of coal-fired power stations and coal-to-liquid conversion facilities, through a natural process, to make more liquid fuel.
What could be more "green" than that?
And, is it by now gratuitous to note that, once we have methanol, we can make gasoline from it?