Baking Soda Made from Pollution

A fascinated blurb over at Switched:

The company's SkyMine project, in San Antonio, Texas, uses a three-step process that pumps the fumes from burning coal into water that is heated and fed through a filter that isolates hydrogen, chlorine and sodium hydroxide. That sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, is then combined with the carbon dioxide also produced by the burning coal. When this new mixture is filtered, it produces sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda.