A new technology to convert natural gas into hydrogen for bus fuel is starting a three-year test run in Thousand Palms, Calif., to see how it works in the real world.

The concept behind the technology is to hook up to a nearby natural gas pipeline and use a hydrogen generator to extract hydrogen gas from the methane in the natural gas.

The generator looks like a thin disk filled with spiraling microchannels up to two feet in diameter.

The technology sends methane and steam through spiral microchannels — no more than a few millimeters thick —which quickly and evenly expose the gaseous mixture to immense heat that drives chemical reactions and liberates the hydrogen from the natural gas and water.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., developed the science, while the engineering and generators come from STARS Technology Corp., a start-up company also in Richland.

STARS is leasing two such generators to Los Angeles-based gas distributor Southern California Gas Company. SoCalGas plans to use the two generators to provide fuel for 17 hydrogen fuel cell buses for the SunLine Transit Agency in Thousand Palms.

“We have a strong commitment to move the company to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions,” Neil Navin, SoCalGas vice president of clean energy innovations told NetZero Insider. The company wants to replace 20% of its traditional natural gas supply with renewable natural gas by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2045.

SoCalGas likes the fact that the hydrogen generators can be connected to any nearby natural gas line, he said. This eliminates the need to haul hydrogen in tanker trucks to refueling points.

PNNL believes the new technology supports a California plan to allocate $20 million annually to build at least 100 hydrogen fuel stations in the state.

SunLine bought its first hydrogen fuel cell bus in 2000 and recently finished constructing a 900 kg/day hydrogen electrolyzer also to be used for its buses, the agency said in an April press release.