> he system applies a voltage to split CO2 into oxygen gas and solid carbon nanofibers
Wait what? Where is the electrical energy coming from if not from bringing solid carbon into a lower energy state by oxidising it and releasing the energy difference as heat? If you want to reverse that process you will with certainty have to invest more energy to account for all the losses. At which point this isn't a power plant anymore. Am I missing something here?
The fuel which is being burned has a higher specific energy than pure carbon, (compare the specific energy of natural gas with coal [1]). The chemical process is methane -> pure carbon with CO2 as an intermediate state.
Of course you're not generating as much power as just burning the methane completely.
Thanks. So disregarding any heat losses, you get (12-7.5)/12 = 37.5% of the stored energy. Gas power plants appear to have an efficiency of 54% [1]. I honestly can't imagine how you could reasonably get electrical energy out of that system.
Wait what? Where is the electrical energy coming from if not from bringing solid carbon into a lower energy state by oxidising it and releasing the energy difference as heat? If you want to reverse that process you will with certainty have to invest more energy to account for all the losses. At which point this isn't a power plant anymore. Am I missing something here?