system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Theoretically would you be able to separate the carbon from CO2 and create a solid chunk "recycling" it?

I was in my shower the other morning just thinking about stuff that we had been talking about in my chem class when i got thinking, if you were able to separate O2 from the Carbon Dioxide molecule would you be able to gather enough of the carbon the create a solid chunk? Because if that were the case you would basically have a clean renewable source of energy since the O2 would be released back into the atmosphere and we would be able to use the carbon for energy once again.
gpt
You can certainly separate CO2 to make C and O2. This process requires an input of energy, since CO2 is chemically a lower energy state then separate C and O2. If you were to combust the C and O2 together again, you would release an amount of heat energy equal to what you put in to separate them. This is essentially a closed chemical cycle, like a battery. You put energy in, you get energy out.

The reason we are able to take advantage of burning Hydrocarbons is because plants convert solar energy into chemical energy by building complex sugar molecules, combining C and H. When we burn Hydrocarbons, we are releasing that stored chemical energy, with the products being low energy state molecules like H2O and CO2. Those products are then converted back into Hydrocarbons by plants using solar energy, and the cycle continues.