After the program was funded beginning early July, 1981, the literature search (Task 1) has been initiated and is still in progress. We hope we will report the conclusions of the literature search in the next quarter. We have spent most of our time on ordering and purchasing equipment, setting up the equipment, and studying coal oxidation mechanisms at noble metal electrodes (Task 2). We have also carried out some ground work on photoassisted electrolysis (Task 3) of coal at the semiconductor thin film electrode by preparing and characterizing n-SnO/sub 2/ electrodes. We conclude from our study that coal is oxidized catalytically by iron(III), which in turn is reduced to iron(II). The iron(II) generated from this catalytic reaction undergoes the electrochemical oxidation, completing a cycle. The rate for this catalytic reaction is determined to be approximately (3.0 - 1.0) x 10/sup -5/ sec/sup -1/ for iron(III) and 1.2 x 10/sup -4/ sec/sup -1/ for Ce(IV) at 20/sup 0/C, respectively.