A method of removing carbon dioxide from an atmosphere and generating hydrogen includes capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in an alkaline capture solution, sending the alkaline capture solution to a series of electrolyzers in a CO2-rich path, wherein each electrolyzer cell raises the acidity of the input CO2-rich solution to produce an acidified CO2-rich solution, removing carbon dioxide from the acidified CO2-rich solution at a carbon dioxide removal unit operation to produce a CO2-poor solution, sending the CO2-poor solution to the series of electrolyzers in a return path, wherein each electrolyzer raises the alkalinity of the return CO2-poor solution to produce a basified CO2-poor solution, wherein a difference in pH between the CO2-rich solution and the CO2-poor solution within each electrolyzer is less than 3, and returning the basified CO2-poor solution to the carbon dioxide capture unit operation.