In order to develop a system for a large scale coal solubilization and its bioconversion to utilizable fuel, the author plans to clone the genes encoding Neurospora protein that facilitate depolymerization of coal. He also plans to use desulfurizing bacteria to remove the sulfur in situ and use other microorganisms to convert biosolubilized coal into utilizable energy following an approach utilizing several microorganisms. In addition the product of coal solubilized by fungus will be characterized to determine their chemical nature and the mechanism of reaction catalyzed by fungal product during in vivo and in vitro solubilization by the fungus or purified fungal protein.