A novel high performance configuration of electrochemical cell to produce alkali for sequestration of carbon dioxide

•A novel configuration of electrochemical cell is proposed for production of alkali.•New configuration consists of two cation exchange membranes (a CEM-CEM system).•New membrane configuration eliminates issues related to anion exchange membrane.•Optimized CEM-CEM system shows a remarkable improvement of output current density.•An energy saving upto 740kWhton−1 for mineralization of CO2 is achieved.