USC has been designated a center for fuel-cell research, positioning it and South Carolina to be leaders in the emerging hydrogen economy.

A news conference is set for Monday to formally announce that the National Science Foundation has named USC its only Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Fuel Cells in the country.

The designation could be a boon to the Midlands and S.C. economies.

"We think there is an opportunity for fuel-cell research to drive a new economy for the state," said John Van Zee, the USC professor named to direct the center. "We have to understand that fuel cells are the boat that is leaving the dock and we have the opportunity to drive that boat rather than catch it."

The center fits with USC president Andrew Sorensen's desire to build a research campus, capitalizing on public-private partnerships. Sorensen was out of state last week and unavailable for comment.

There have been discussions with other schools about joining the USC center, said Alex Schwarzkopf, the National Science Foundation's lead director of the industry/university program.

Ralph White, dean of USC's School of Engineering and Information Technology, likens the opportunity for Columbia to what happened in the 1980s in Austin, Texas, when the then-infant semiconductor industry reinvented that city's economy.

"They formed a ... center funded by a group of industry people," White said. "That is exactly what John (Van Zee) is doing, and you saw what happened after that."

In Austin, the University of Texas and industry came together initially to design semiconductors. "Then companies started moving there for the manufacturing and they continued to do the design work," White said.

USC has 11 industrial partners in the fuel cell research center.

John Goodman of Entegris, one of those partners, said his company thinks fuel cells are much like semiconductors were 20 to 25 years ago. "We expect, as applications become closer to commercial reality, we will see that kind of growth."

That growth could spread to Columbia and elsewhere in South Carolina, White said. Some of the companies that are members of the research center could decide to set up operations here. Others could come in as well.

USC already has had several company representatives come and stay for an extended period of time, White said.

There also are opportunities to have USC faculty and graduate students working with companies in a technology park, Van Zee said. "We are already gettinginquiries along that line."

Most importantly, the Midlands and South Carolina have a chance to build off of what USC is doing. Manufacturing plants - whether national companies, such as DuPont, or international ones - could locate here, Van Zee said.

There also are opportunities for increased activity in shipping and the distribution of the components that make up fuel cells.

"It is the beginning of the new economy, of the hydrogen economy," White said. "It is going to happen, and I think it is going to happen here first."

'THIS NEW ECONOMY'

Fuel cells caught the public's attention in January, when President George W. Bush proposed in his State of the Union address that the country spend $1.2 billion to pay for research "so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles."

Autos powered by fuel cells, which use hydrogen to create electricity in a process that has no emissions, are not likely soon. Other uses are more immediate.

One of the first widespread uses of fuel cells is likely to be as backup power systems for cellular telephone towers. One of the USC center's industrial partners, PlugPower Inc. of New York, has introduced such a system.

Fuel cells also can be used to power tools or laptop computers.

Longer term, fuel cells could be used to provide electricity for a power grid or power an automobile. But those applications are years away.

"At the university we are doing research - not for things that are going to happen tomorrow - ... putting ourselves in position to be a major player 10 years from now in terms of this new economy," Van Zee said.

USC has been active in fuel-cell research for 10 years. It has been working on the National Science Foundation designation for the last two years.

The foundation has more than 50 Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers around the nation.

The research center designation gives USC "cachet," said Anthony Boccanfuso, managing director of the USC Research Foundation.

"It will help us recruit more businesses and also recognizes where we are as a university in terms of the strength of our fuel-cell program," Boccanfuso said.

The designation is like having the National Cancer Institute label ona medical center, he said.

HOW CENTER WORKS

The fuel-cell research center, housed in the College of Engineering and Information Science, brings USC together with its 11 industrial partners.

Each pays $35,000 in annual dues. The National Science Foundation puts in $70,000 a year in seed money. That money is supplemented by USC, which shares some administrative and overhead costs.

Universities also tend to get about $170,000 a year in additional research dollars for each industrial partner involved in a research center, according to documents USC filed with the National Science Foundation.

The initial money will support about 11 graduate students working on research projects in five areas, including fuel-cell design and performance, and hydrogen storage.

One of USC's major strengths is developing computer models to aid fuel-cell design.

About half of the 65 doctoral students in USC's chemical engineering department are working on fuel-cell-related projects. Another 10 to 12 electrical and mechanical engineering students also are doing research.

Specific projects are undertaken by the research centerbecause either one industrial partner has an interest or there is support from several members.

An industrial advisory board meets every six months at USC to help steer the research. Meetings with the company scientists are held at least quarterly. Industry representatives also frequently are working in the center.

USC owns the intellectual property and patents developed by the center. The center's industrial sponsors are entitled to a nonexclusive, royalty-free license on the patents. They also can sublicense the patents to subsidiaries.

An average center produces about one patent a year.

FIRMS SEE PROMISE

Among USC's industrial partners are a division of German-based BASF, one of the world's leading chemical companies; Minnesota-based Entegris, a materials management firm; W.L. Gore & Associates, the maker of GoreTex; ShowaDenko, a Japanese-based company that manufactures graphite electrodes for the steel industry in Ridgeland; and the Savannah River Technology Center, part of Westinghouse Savannah River Co.

Goodman said Entegris believes fuel cells have the potential to be one of the fastest-growing industries over the next couple of decades.

Entegris is aggressively working on fuel-cell applications, he said. "Our customers are the folks actually making the fuel cells."

Goodman, who is chairman of the USC research center's industrial advisory board, said some of the research done there will help industry accelerate the commercialization of fuel cells, ultimately reducing costs.

Van Zee said the center will add more industrial partners. That will allow the center to do additional projects and involve more faculty and students. "Our product is really the students, graduate and undergraduate."

The center is using laboratories in USC's Swearingen Engineering Center. Van Zee said more and better lab space will come in time.

Engineering dean White would like to move that school into new space in the first campus research buildings that Sorensen wants to build on the block bounded by Blossom, Main, Wheat and Assembly streets.

WHY S.C.?

USC was able to land the research center because it and the state have expertise in fuel cells, university and industry officials said.

For a fuel cell to work, you have to be able to produce hydrogen, store it safely, convert it to electricity and then convert the electricity into a useful form, such as alternating current.

South Carolina has a leg up in each of those areas, officials said.

The Savannah River Technology Center is a leader in hydrogen technology, especially in storage methods. It is also involved in using nuclear power to produce hydrogen.

Other S.C. companies produce hydrogen as a byproduct. The state also has a sizable chemical industry.

USC has expertise in designing fuel cells and also in working with the electricity that comes out of the fuel cell, White said.

"No other university has as strong a relationship between the two departments - chemical engineering and electrical engineering," he said. "They just don't exist."