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“the remaining half of the CO2 was recovered from the electrolyte as plain old baking soda“

This means for every C (carbon) molecule we remove, we need one Na (sodium) molecule right?

"A sodium metal anode is placed in an organic electrolyte" - no - you need metallic sodium. this takes energy. you get some of that energy back as electricity and 'stored' in the hydrogen by letting it turn back into an ion and forming some carbonate.

So the key question is what is the energy efficiency, and how does it compare with other carbon capture technologies.

We could use brine from desalination plants for Na, it's really common element. Cl (chloride) could be used for something probably.

The baking soda can be used along with waste water, and the brine from desalination plants to grow spirulina which also captures CO2 and can be used to produce biofuels.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com