This article reads as something trying to make the case for ternary without knowing anything about it.
Being able to store 0-8 numbers in 2 trits instead of 0-7 numbers in 3 bits is not a value added.
The comparison (</=/>) is the only real advantage they mentioned, but the way that might provide an advantage is if it's a single trit register within a primarily binary system. I.e. your (binary) comparison instruction (comparing two binary numbers) drops the result in the single-trit register, and then your (binary) jump instructions jump to a (binary) location based on that trit register. Point is, there's no benefit to having the entire system be ternary just for one ternary value. This is a semantic benefit, because the operation really does have 3 possible outcomes, but there are potential energy efficiency downsides to this.
A bigger benefit might be representing unknowns or don't-cares--notably numbers in this system are still binary, but some bits are unknown or don't matter. In this case, you can actually make some energy efficiency gains, especially in the context of don't cares, because you can simply jam whatever voltage is most convenient into that "bit"--it doesn't even have to match a voltage range. But I'm not entirely sure that it's accurate to call those systems "ternary".
Being able to store 0-8 numbers in 2 trits instead of 0-7 numbers in 3 bits is not a value added.
The comparison (</=/>) is the only real advantage they mentioned, but the way that might provide an advantage is if it's a single trit register within a primarily binary system. I.e. your (binary) comparison instruction (comparing two binary numbers) drops the result in the single-trit register, and then your (binary) jump instructions jump to a (binary) location based on that trit register. Point is, there's no benefit to having the entire system be ternary just for one ternary value. This is a semantic benefit, because the operation really does have 3 possible outcomes, but there are potential energy efficiency downsides to this.
A bigger benefit might be representing unknowns or don't-cares--notably numbers in this system are still binary, but some bits are unknown or don't matter. In this case, you can actually make some energy efficiency gains, especially in the context of don't cares, because you can simply jam whatever voltage is most convenient into that "bit"--it doesn't even have to match a voltage range. But I'm not entirely sure that it's accurate to call those systems "ternary".