Perched on a flatbed truck and painted in the pattern of a blue sky, the world’s first hybrid hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine (HHICE) mass-transit bus made a brief appearance at the Municipal Building on Thursday morning after spending the night in Montclair.

The bus, created by California-based ISE Corp., was in the midst of a tour on route to the National Hydrogen Association conference in Washington, D.C.

Montclair happened to be one of the stops along the trip, which included stays in Buffalo, Albany and Newark, thanks to ISE’s connection to Neighborhood Energy, a New Jersey-based group that advocates hydrogen technologies and whose director of governmental affairs, James Sherman, chairs the Montclair Environmental Commission.

“We think this bus is the key to sustainable energy for the future of the state, country and world,” Sherman said during a brief ceremony outside the Municipal Building that Mayor Ed Remsen, Township Manager Joe Hartnett and other municipal officials attended.

Aside from the external color scheme, the bus looks like any other from the outside and inside the cabin, said Jayson Cannon, an engineer with ISE.

It’s the eight cylindrical hydrogen tanks stashed overhead and the Ford V10 engine modified to run on the gas that sets it apart from the NJ Transit and DeCamp buses that cruise through Montclair.

ISE’s bus is not cost effective — yet.

While hydrogen currently costs about the same as gasoline, the price of one HHICE bus is pegged about $900,000, two to three times the price of a typical NJ Transit bus.

But representatives from ISE and Neighborhood Energy said that cleaner emissions from the bus, and increased use of renewable energy, would provide benefits immediately and for the future.

Sherman said that in New Jersey, diesel exhaust annually causes 1,200 deaths and 6,000 emergency-room visits, as well as 68,000 asthma attacks.

“If you had buses like this in New Jersey, there would be fewer asthma and other pulmonary problems,” said Michael Simon of ISE.

ISE, in its promotional materials, estimates that the nation’s dependence on foreign oil annually costs $200 billion.

Hydrogen, meanwhile, could be produced within U.S. borders.

“Best of all, we can do this right now. We don’t have to wait 15 to 20 years for fuel cells to become available. This could be going in New Jersey, here, today,” Sherman said.

The HHICE bus uses a variant of the hybrid-electric drive system currently powering cars such in the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius. The hybrid system allows the engine’s battery to recharge while braking.

Neighborhood Energy also stated in a release that hydrogen is as safe as or safer than diesel or gasoline. Tanks used to store hydrogen undergo federal testing, showing they can withstand bonfires, shots from a .357 magnum or a dynamite explosion, according to Neighborhood Energy.

One problem with hydrogen gas is that a driver can’t fill up the tanks at a neighborhood gas station.

“That’s tricky. There aren’t too many places where you can fill up on hydrogen,” Simon said.

During the HHICE bus’s recent test in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the bus filled up at a portable hydrogen station stored on a flatbed truck. California, however, has more than 800 hydrogen filling stations, which is where SunLine Transit recently purchased three of the HHICE buses for use in Palm Desert.

It’s unclear, however, when bus passengers in New Jersey may notice a smoother ride with fewer greenhouse gas emissions, as was reported from the Winnipeg trial.

Following the showcase in Montclair, the hydrogen bus made its way to Newark, where NJ Transit officials and others took a ride on it.

Sherman said it was too early to gauge their reaction.

At the upcoming National Hydrogen Association conference in Washington, ISE and Neighborhood Energy were expected to further increase the awareness of this new technology available for buses.

The HHICE bus was built with funding from several groups, including the Federal Transit Administration, California Energy Commission and Ford Motor Co.

“It was a couple of people that had the guts to do something that had never been done before,” said ISE scientist Paul Scott.

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