United States Patent Application: 0070298478
As seen in, for one example: Arkansas Bacteria Convert Coal to Methane | Research & Development | News; it is possible, as we have several times reported, to utilize certain microorganisms, in place of catalysts, to facilitate the conversion of Coal, or synthesis gas derived from Coal, into hydrocarbons.
We instinctively recognize that the same is essentially true of Carbon Dioxide, albeit in a very indirect and energy-wasteful way, in the production of Ethanol, via the fermentation and subsequent distillation of it, from agricultural produce.