By Chris Wack

Sempra Energy said its Southern California Gas Co. subsidiary will demonstrate a groundbreaking technological combination that will produce hydrogen from renewable natural gas at SunLine Transit Agency's hydrogen fueling station in Thousand Palms, Calif.

The company said the research project, called H2 SilverSTARS, will produce renewable hydrogen to fuel SunLine's fleet of 17 hydrogen fuel cell electric buses and support further expansion.

The combination of new technologies will make it possible to provide renewable hydrogen made from RNG at natural gas fueling stations, or any location near a natural gas pipeline. The goal is to produce emissions-free renewable hydrogen for fuel cell electric cars and other vehicles at a price competitive with gasoline.

Southern California Gas said the demonstration project will integrate two core technologies. The first, Linde's HydroPrime HC300 MIN system, will make hydrogen from renewable natural gas the same way large centralized hydrogen production plants do, but with compact equipment small enough to fit in a tractor trailer container.

The second technology, STARS-165 SMR, built by the start-up STARS corporation will achieve significantly greater efficiencies in producing hydrogen by using a compact microchannel design and is driven by an electricity-powered induction heating process, meaning there is no combustion, which significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared with traditional hydrogen production.

The project is expected to last 36 months and will initially demonstrate both core technologies individually and collect performance data to assess the STARS system's potential to improve its efficiency and cost.

Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-21-21 1321ET