Researcher demonstrates how to suck carbon from the air, make stuff from it

Here’s a palette cleanser from that last post. From the MIT Technology Review:

The process requires molten lithium carbonate, with another compound, lithium oxide, dissolved in it. The lithium oxide combines with carbon dioxide in the air, forming more lithium carbonate. When voltage is applied across two electrodes immersed in the molten carbonate, the resulting reaction produces oxygen, carbon—which deposits on one of the electrodes—and lithium oxide, which can be used to capture more carbon dioxide and start the process again.

If this proves cost-effective, this could be the start of an effective campaign to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.