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I think the title of this thread is a little misleading, this technology isn't exactly new. From what I've read on the subject, this process requires a lot of electrical energy to convert and store the hydrocarbon fuels, making it less energy efficient than simply burning hydrocarbon fuels that have been dug out of the ground. Synthetic hydrocarbon fuels are said to have an energy storage ratio of around 15%.
That being said, it would make good use of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, but sadly the net CO2 levels wouldn't be changed, even if solar, wind or nuclear power were used to generate the electricity needed to drive the process. If the UK were to make a switch to exclusively nuclear power, the process might be viable if there was no switch from hydrocarbon fuels to electricity in certain areas, other than that, I can't really see what the fuss is about.