A word from my AI friend

It seems to me that often the discussion on the energy transition lack quantities and boundaries.

So I asked an AI program to tell me how much work I would get out of 100 units of electrical energy, if I used to to generate 'green' hydrogen and then ran an internal combustion engine to supply that work.

Here's the estimate:

Here is a table summarising the energy conversion efficiencies from electricity to work in a hydrogen-powered piston engine:

Stage of energy conversion	Efficiency
Electrical energy to hydrogen production	50-60%
Hydrogen production to hydrogen storage (compressed or liquefied)	70-80%
Hydrogen storage to hydrogen delivery	90%
Hydrogen delivery to hydrogen combustion in a piston engine	37%
Hydrogen combustion in a piston engine to work	28%

Overall, the energy efficiency of a hydrogen-powered piston engine is approximately 14%. This means that for every 100 units of electricity used to generate hydrogen, only 14 units of work can be recovered in the engine. The remaining energy is lost as heat or due to other inefficiencies.