Fuel cells are an incredibly versatile, clean way to produce electricity.  They're part battery, part fuel, similar to the engines in hybrid cars.  But instead of gasoline-- they use hydrogen.

"Hydrogen, when it goes through the fuel cell, it doesn't actually burn, all it creates is water, there's no other pollution output from the device at all.", says Eric Jensen with Crown Equipment Corporation in New Bremen.

Experts say we're still a few years away from a fuel cell being able to power a car like the ones we drive everyday, but as you can tell from this conference, there are plenty of opportunities and applications to make Ohio the fuel cell corridor of the country.

"We are producing anything from truck lifts, to generators, there are practical applications operating right now in Ohio with fuel cells.", says Rep. John Husted, Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.

Crown Equipment Corporation showed off its fully operational fork-lift run by a fuel cell.  It's really helped to increase productivity.

"The cell is ready to go in two minutes, you need one in the truck, and the truck will run three shifts a day, all day long, with two minute re-fueling sessions every time it needs to come in and re-fuel which is about eight hours, about a shift.", says Jensen.

And fuel cells can be fun.  A group of Ohio State students are trying to break the 300 mile per hour barrier with the Buckeye Bullet Two.  Powered by-- you guessed it-- fuel cells.

"It really is unique to Ohio, and to Ohio State, there's no other university going after a record quite like this, no other university attempting land speed records of this nature.", says OSU grad student Ed Hillstrom.

And the future looks bright.  Experts hope the cells will drive down energy costs, clean up the environment, and create thousands of jobs.