some unpleasant facts about coal to liquids, page-11

"Coal to liquids is very inefficient. You would save coal, energy, water and CO2 by burning the coal properly in a proper power station and then running things of electricity."

Linc are using stranded coal seams, the kind that the coal industry term as un-economic. So as inefficient as you may think it is, at least Linc is putting to use a resource that would otherwise had been left untouched.