With $50,000 from the Greater Columbia Fuel Cell Challenge, USC researchers in the College of Engineering and Computing have put fuel cells on two Segways-the personal transporter (that looks like something from "The Jetsons" television program) currently used throughout the world by individuals, business, government and police.

"We wanted to see if we could extend the range ("ride time"). by adding a fuel cell," said Dr. John Weidner, a professor of chemical engineering who developed the fuel cell-powered Segway with fellow chemical engineer Chuck Holland.

The university gave one of the Segways, which are usually powered by lithium-ion batteries that have to be re-charged, to the City of Columbia for the police department; the other is being used by researchers and ultimately will have a home in the Horizon Center of Innovista, the university's research district.

The fuel cell, about the size of a soft-drink can, is expected to increase the amount of time that a Segway can be used by 20 - 90 percent, Weidner said. "For a police department, that might mean that the Segway could be used during an entire shift, rather than two or three hours."

Weidner and Holland also have created a company Hydrogen Hybrid Mobility that will test new uses of hydrogen energy. The next step for the company, Holland said, is to conduct performance tests for the fuel cell-powered Segways and then work toward commercialization of their product.

Commercialization isn't far into the future. A tour company recently contacted the researchers about their Segway adaptation. The company, which gives two tours a day, found that they could extend the number of tours to three if they had a fuel-cell powered Segway.

"They could increase their profit by 50 percent," Holland said. "The future for this product is promising."

The University of South Carolina is recognized as a leader in alternative-fuels research. The College of Engineering and Computing is home to the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells, the nation's only fuel-cell center established by the National Science Foundation.

Earlier this year, the university named Dr. Kenneth Reifsnider, one of the world's pre-eminent fuel-cell researchers, to lead its solid-oxide fuel-cell research initiative and to pursue ways to apply the promising energy conversion devices to benefit society.

Reifsnider, the former director of the Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center at the University of Connecticut, is the director of Carolina's Solid Oxide Fuel Program and a professor of mechanical engineering. He is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, making the University of South Carolina the state's only university with an active faculty member of the prestigious academy.