At the tail-end of last week’s Tokyo Motor Show Suzuki unveiled an exciting e-scooter concept, the Burgman, powered by a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and a li-ion battery.

Suzuki says that the innovative powertrain would enable the Burgman to reach distances of up to 220 miles at an average speed of 30kph (20mph) - so no wild freeway jaunts just yet then.

However, the company also reckon that performance will be comparable to a standard 125cc scooter (but I’d imagine that riding at higher speeds would most likely significantly reduce range).

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Yamaha

Did it work? Maybe!

More about the seemingly production-ready HV-X hybrid concept—including video—after the jump…

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I don’t normally get excited about hybrids. They’re pretty humdrum if you ask me, and I was into performance vehicles way before I was into alternative fuels. The Prius is boring, the Fusion is just a Fusion, and the Insight and downright ugly.

But Honda seems to have been listening, having announced that the aggressively styled CR-Z concept hatch will make it into production as a 2011 model for Japan and America. This is a hybrid car I could actually see myself driving.

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Japan’s annual whaling expedition off the port city of Kushiro has resulted in the killing of 59 minke whales - just one whale short of the 60 allowed by international guidelines.

Under the cover of its so-called research program, Japan has slaughtered 59 minke whales - almost the maximum of 60 authorized by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

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You can take pretty much any car, add gullwings, and it is instantly cool. Or not. But I’d have to catagorize this upcoming Subaru hybrid concept car as pretty cool, something I don’t often do with Subarus. I mean just look at those doors!

Whether or not Subaru ever makes this odd two-motor hybrid or it remains as another sidelined concept, who knows. But they’ve got some good ideas, and gullwing doors. Yeah, I’m really a fan of the doors.

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If you’re in Tokyo tomorrow, make sure to check out Sony’s exhibit at the FC EXPO 2009. The company will display the newest version of its hybrid fuel cell, which contains a Li-on battery and a methanol fuel cell.

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The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) recently developed a surprisingly attractive solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The sugar cube-sized SOFC, which is made up of 25 needle-like modules measuring 0.8 mm, packs a serious punch due to a high ratio of electrode area to volume. And since small size means a small heat capacity, the module also has a low operating temperature.

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There’s another player in the race to make aviation biofuel: camelina.

A Japan Airlines Boeing 747-300 took off from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Friday, with an engine powered by a biofuel made primarily from camelina, making JAL the first airline to test fly the fuel.  The fuel was a mix of camelina (84 percent), jatropha, (16 percent) and algae (less than 1 percent), marking the 1.5 hour flight as the first demonstration flight powered by biofuel made from three feedstocks.

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Honda CR-Z lightweight hybrid sports car. Photo: Honda

After talking with Mr. Yamamoto about supercapacitors, I moved on to discuss the possibility of a manual transmission on future hybrid vehicles. He said that it would not be difficult to put a manual transmission into an Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) Hybrid system.

Even though the current Civic hybrids have no option for a manual transmission, a manual transmission was offered on the first generation of that car. The reason the current Civic Hybrid has a continuously variable transmission (CVT) is to increase overall fuel efficiency by automatically letting the system choose the most efficient drive ratio.

While you could potentially get a much better fuel efficiency with a manual transmission if you practice “Ecodriving,” the efficiency would go down significantly if you choose lower gears more often or drove more aggressively.

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At RICOH booth, we saw the demonstration of a new erasable advance paper. Printed document on this advance paper can be erased by ironing and be ready for another round of printing.

I had an opportunity to take the English guided tour at Eco-Products 2008. The Eco-Products exhibition is one of the largest green fairs in Japan, showing all kinds of green products and services to the public. The event draws a large number of visitors. It’s possibly the world’s largest event of its kind. The tenth Eco-Products 2008 exhibition was successful enough to attract 173,917 visitors this year according to the event organizer.

Visitors came from all over the world to see the latest of Japanese green activities. To accommodate such foreign visitors, guided tours in English, Chinese and Korean, were offered for free by volunteer staff from Japan for Sustainability (JFS) and EcoNetworks (ENW). The English guided tours were offered twice during the three-day event, but you needed to register for the tour beforehand at JFS’s website.

Our tour was guided by Frank H. Ling Ph.D. from USA, who works as a researcher for the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan. Our group had five visitors including me plus a lead guide, Mr. Ling, with a few more staff for additional assistance.

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As I mentioned in part one of my interview, Honda first introduced the ultracapacitor with the J-VX concept. The J-VX ultimately led to the original production Insight, without the ultracapacitor. Honda also used the ultracapacitor technology on the FCX models (pre-Clarity) for years.

Honda developed their original ultracapacitors, and improved them during the period of FCX development and explains more about it on their web site.

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I’d like to thank all the readers who responded to my previous article with questions I could pose to Mr. Yamamoto. I’d also like to thank InsightCentral.net members for responding to that article too! I really appreciate your input, and apologize for taking so long to write this article.

After talking a bit about Green Options Media, Gas 2.0 and Insight Central, the very first question I asked him was about the possibility of using an ultracapacitor in a future Honda hybrid. More than ten years ago, the Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) power train was first introduced with the J-VX concept and was originally developed with an ultracapacitor instead of NiMH batteries.

Mr. Yamamoto explained that Honda engineers have researched ultracapacitor technology in the past but that the technology, although promising, is still too new and has several challenges to overcome. In the end, Honda decided to go with NiMH batteries on the first generation of Insight in consideration of mass production and quality control.

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More details of some of the intresting products on display are to come later, but meantime here are some pictures from the event:

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Yesterday, we took a look at how piezoelectrics— crystals or ceramics that generate voltage when mechanical stress is applied— could allow cell phones to be powered by sound waves. Now the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has announced that it is installing piezoelectric elements in the floors of its Tokyo station in an attempt to generate power from passengers passing through ticket gates.

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