Now you can help stop global warming and make a light and fluffy cake at the same time. Just ask the people at Skyonic Corporation.

The Skyonic website notes that their process was created to help reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel plants and therefore could help to address the challenges associated with global climate change and impending carbon reduction legislation. According to the site, the process uses waste heat and onsite production of sodium hydroxide to profitably remove CO₂, acid gases, and heavy metals from flue gases. The carbon dioxide is stored in a stable form as sodium bicarbonate "(better-than-food-grade baking soda)," which can then be used in industrial processes, or landfilled. The process also "produces clean (non-methane-based) hydrogen and low-energy chlorine."

A recent CNet/News.com article on the process described more of the process and the pilot program that Skyonics is conducting with ACC member company Luminant Energy to help bring this technology to the market.

(Joe David) Jones, the founder and CEO of Skyonic, has come up with an industrial process called SkyMine that captures 90 percent of the carbon dioxide coming out of smoke stacks and mixes it with sodium hydroxide to make sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda. The energy required for the reaction to turn the chemicals into baking soda comes from the waste heat from the factory.

"It is cleaner than food-grade (baking soda)," he said.

The system also removes 97 percent of the heavy metals, as well as most of the sulfur and nitrogen compounds, Jones said.

Luminant, a utility formerly known as TXU, installed a pilot version of the system at its Big Brown Steam Electric Station in Fairfield, Texas, last year. Skyonic, meanwhile, hopes to install a system that will consume the greenhouse gas output of a large--500 megawatts or so--power plant around 2009. Skyonic is currently designing one of these large systems.

The article also noted that, if successful, the process could help reduce the need for mining sodium hydroxide and replace the need for installing scrubbers.

If tests prove successful and the product can be brought to market, it could be a boon for the industry, regulators, the environment, and electricity users (read: pretty much everyone.)

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