Panasonic Develops New Fuel Cell Cogeneration System for Home Use; World's Highest Power-generation Capability, Durability and Environmental Benefits

Tokyo, Japan, Apr 15, 2008 - (JCN Newswire) - Panasonic, the leading brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, today announced it has developed a home-use polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) cogeneration system. The cogeneration system features the world's highest power-generating efficiency of up to 39% Lower Heating Value(LHV), durability of 40,000 operation hours and 4,000 start-stop times, and a predicted lifetime of over 10 years.

Panasonic has strived to achieve its vision of "living in harmony with the environment." With this goal as a motivator, the company has now developed a home-use fuel cell cogeneration system that is planned for early commercialization as a next-generation energy supply system.

Based on the results of large-scale field testing conducted between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2008**, a new system has been developed with upgraded energy-saving features and enhanced reliability. Further field testing is scheduled in fiscal 2009 ending March 31, 2009.

When installed in an ordinary household, the new system can reduce primary energy consumption by 22% (about 1.4 times more than the conventional system) and can cut CO2 emissions by 12% based on the basic unit for all power sources. With year-round operation, it can save 3,262 kWh of primary energy and reduce CO2 emissions by 330 kg. The new system
can reduce CO2 emissions by 37% based on the basic unit for thermal power source. With year-round operation, it can cut CO2 emissions by1,175 kg.

The three-year field tests also found that the system was often operated in a power output range between 500 W and 1 kW in ordinary households. Within this practical use range, the new system has achieved drastically improved power-generating efficiency compared to conventional systems. The Panasonic system has achieved the world's highest power-generating efficiencies 39% (LHV) at 750 W; 38% or higher in the 500 W - 1 kW range and 34% at 300 W. The system has also satisfied durability requirements for home-use equipment.

In the conventional system, the fuel processing device is not as efficient and inverter efficiency drops toward its lower output ranges. As a result, the power-generating efficiency of the conventional system is the highest at its higher ratings, and falls with decreasing output.

Panasonic has made the system feasible by using cell stack technology that employs highly-durable Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEA), fuel processing technology that allows stable operation in a wide range at high efficiency and low-loss boost inverter technology.

Panasonic will install production equipment for the new system in its plant in Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, and will start manufacturing from June this year. In fiscal 2010, further investments will be made to start a full-scale commercialization of this system as a new environmental business that creates a new energy source.

JCNNetwork.

Robotic-suit facility being built in Tsukuba

TSUKUBA —Cyberdyne Inc on Wednesday broke ground on a new lab in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, to develop a robotic suit aimed at helping people with disabilities to move their limbs. The lab will double as a manufacturing plant and is due to begin turning out 400-500 units of the suit each year from October, with annual output rising to several tens of thousands of units over the next several years, according to the technology venture founded by researchers headed by Professor Yoshiyuki Sankai of the University of Tsukuba.

Company has tied up with Daiwa House Industry Co to rent out the new product to consumers and healthcare institutions. The robotic suit is called HAL, which stands for hybrid assistive limb. It covers both sides of the user’s body and weighs about 23 kilograms. When a person tries to move his or her limbs, the brain transmits neural signals to the muscles. Sensors attached to the suit pick up weak biopotential signals that filter through the surface of the skin in the process, which in turn activate either one of the two power units for the upper or the lower body to move the wearer’s limbs in line with the muscular movements willed by the brain, the company explains.

In addition to helping people with disabilities to walk and perform other physical tasks, HAL can also be used to lighten the load on workers performing heavy manual work, a Cyberdyne official said.

The product comes with a rechargeable 100-volt battery pack that powers the suit for about two hours and 40 minutes, the official added.

Monthly rental fees for the biped model will likely be around 200,000 yen or less for health organizations and 100,000 yen or less for individual customers.

The company says that it has received inquiries about the suit from several hundred people, including muscular dystrophy sufferers.

‘‘We want to take our business worldwide,’’ says Professor Sankai, president of Cyberdyne.

JapanToday.

Toray to build world's biggest carbon fiber plant

TOKYO — Toray Industries Inc will build the world’s biggest carbon fiber plant to meet growing demand from the aircraft, automobiles and other industries. The new plant, to be located in Masaki, Ehime Prefecture, southwestern Japan, is slated to begin operations as early as 2010 with an annual capacity of 4,000 tons, company officials say.

By the end of 2012, Toray’s annual carbon fiber output capacity will increase 1.7-fold from the current level to more than 30,000 tons.

Toray is developing the carbon fiber components for use in the tail of the first Japanese-made small passenger jetliner now development by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. The new plant will make not only high-performance but also general-purpose carbon fibers.

JapanToday.com

Sony Bravia E4000 HDTV is an Art Piece, Really!

The Sony Bravia E4000 has been created to look like a picture frame, so that it looks great on your wall. When guests are around, you can create a photo slideshow, turning it into the most expensive photo frame of 2008. Of course, we love the idea and we love how thin the TV seems to be. However, when watching movies, it feels like the white frame could be distracting (the aluminum frame of my current HDTV certainly is). Fortunately, several frame colors are available.

Highlights

• 26”, 32” or 40” LCD 10-bit display
• Frame colors: Midnight Sky, Aluminum, Dark walnut, Pearly White
• 1080p
• Analog/Digital TV Tuner
• 3x HDMI ports, VGA Port
• USB photo viewer

Article from Ubergizmo.

Mitsubishi, Fuji to test electric vehicles in U.S.

NEW YORK — Mitsubishi Motors Corp and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, the maker of Subaru vehicles, unveiled their plans Thursday to conduct city-road testing of their electric vehicles in the United States after this summer. Mitsubishi is set to launch street testing of its MiEV electric vehicle this fall, apparently in cooperation with several electric power companies in the U.S. West Coast.

Equipped with a lithium-ion battery pack, the Mitsubishi MiEV is capable of running 160 kilometers per charge. Fuji Heavy plans to carry out street testing of its R1e electric car for about three months from this summer, along with the New York Power Authority.

JapanToday.

New chip detects biological terrorism

TOKYO — A three-party Japanese team announced Monday that it has jointly developed a DNA chip capable of swiftly detecting and identifying pathogenic agents in the event of a biological terrorist attack. The three-party team consists of the National Research Institute of Police Science, a National Police Agency organization, the state-run Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, and Toshiba Corp.

The new DNA chip, which was developed by combining the pathogenic organism detection technologies of the research institute and the university with Toshiba's DNA detection technology, is capable of identifying about 20 pathogenic organisms including anthrax bacteria.

The new system only takes about an hour to identify more than one pathogenic organism used in a bioterrorism attack, much quicker than the several hours required by existing technologies for collection, analysis and identification of an agent.

On the new DNA chip, around 20 DNA elements are arrayed on a glass substrate measuring 35 millimeters long, 50 mm wide and 10 mm thick.

The DNA chip, which uses Toshiba's electric current-detection technology, identifies a pathogenic agent after a sample of the agent collected at an attack site is placed on it.The National Research Institute of Police Science said the new DNA chip will be helpful in preventing further contamination, providing appropriate treatment and arranging swift evacuations.

JapanToday.

The Toyota iQ boost Toyota's eco-credentials

Toyota iQ

Toyota has wasted no time in turning its tiny, eco-friendly iQ concept car into a production reality.

A finished prototype was unveiled at Geneva, just six months after the original iQ was shown at the 2007 Frankfurt show. And it'll be on sale before the end of the year, said Toyota Motor Europe senior vice-president Andrea Formica.

As short as a Smart, but wider, Formica said iQ was “the world's smallest four-seater passenger car. Its clever seating configuration takes three adults plus a child, in less than 3 metres.”

Carpages UK.

Japan to boost power generation from waste, end dumping in landfills

TOKYO — The Environment Ministry decided Monday to boost annual power generation from waste by 50% over the next five years through fiscal 2012 as well as abolish direct dumping into landfills as part of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ministry officials said.

By expanding waste power generation, the ministry aims to reduce the use of fossil fuels such as petroleum. Under the method, electricity can be produced with the heat from the incineration of waste, and no carbon dioxide will be newly emitted just for the power generation.

JapanToday.

KDDI, 4 other Asian firms, Google plan Chiba-Los Angeles cable

TOKYO — KDDI Corp said Tuesday it will lay an undersea fiber-optic cable between southern Chiba Prefecture and Los Angeles with four other Asian telecom companies and Google Inc.

The 10,000-kilometer long, high-performance cable, estimated to cost some $300 million, or about 32 billion yen, is due to commence operation by March 2010 to meet hefty growth in broadband and other telecommunications demand between Japan and the United States, the Japanese telecom company said.

JapanToday.

Japan successfully launches super high-speed Internet satellite

Japan's H-2A rocket carrying a high-speed Internet communications satellite is launched

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan successfully launched Saturday an experimental satellite aimed at providing high-speed Internet access across Asia, even when terrestrial infrastructure goes down, the space agency said.

The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the Kizuna satellite was launched at 17:55 pm (0855 GMT) with no glitches from the Space Centre on Tanegashima island off the southern tip of Kyushu Island, southern Japan.

The communications satellite, expected to be in use for five years, separated from the rocket approximately 35 minutes after the launch, said an official of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) during a live broadcast.

The 342 million dollar-Kizuna will allow super-high speed data communications of up to 1.2 Gbps, which would make it the fastest in the world, the agency said.

That rate would translate to 150 times that of the average high-speed ADSL connection rate of 8 Mbps, or 12 times the speed of a fibre-optic communication delivery to a person's premises (FTTP).

The "Kizuna," which also means "bond" in Japanese, is expected to begin transmitting and receiving data with terrestrial infrastructures in July after completing preparations and confirming the satellite's safety.

Japan is looking to use the satellite to allow communication when a ground-based network is severed by a disaster in any Asian country, in which case it would be used to transmit data to crisis management offices.

The agency is hoping it can also be used as an educational or medical tool to reach people in remote or mountainous areas.

"The Internet is now an integral part of our lives; but its infrastructure levels vary. Urban areas ... have a better environment, whereas some mountainous regions and remote islands are not well-equipped," JAXA said on its website.

The satellite will enable students in Asian countries to communicate smoothly and with no time lag among one another, as if they were in the same classroom, it said.

The satellite will to last five years, an agency spokeswoman said.

The launch was delayed by one week after JAXA said it had discovered a problem with the gas jet thruster for its launch rocket.

Japan, like developing Asian powers China and India, has been stepping up its space operations and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.

Japan faced an embarrassing failure in November 2003, when it had to destroy a rocket carrying a spy satellite 10 minutes after lift-off because a booster failed to separate.

However, Japan's first lunar probe, Kaguya, was successfully launched last September, releasing two baby satellites which will be used to study the gravity fields of the moon among other projects.

The 55-billion-yen (500-million-dollar) lunar probe is the most extensive mission to investigate the moon since the US Apollo in the 1960s and 1970s.

AFP.

Sony to develop larger OLED panels

TOKYO — Sony Corp said Tuesday it will invest some 22 billion yen from the second half of fiscal 2008 ending in March 2009 to accelerate its development of large and medium-sized organic light-emitting diode panels.

Sony launched its OLED research in 1994 and released the world's first OLED television in December 2007 in Japan.

JapanToday.

Denso to test vehicle collision prevention system

TOKYO — Denso Corp said Tuesday it will test an anticollision, vehicle-to-vehicle communications system on public roads in Abashiri in Hokkaido from April. The accident prevention system allows in-vehicle communications devices to send out warning signals if automobiles come close, said the auto parts maker affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp.

Denso expects the system to help drivers prevent crashes at blind intersections or in low visibility conditions caused by wind-blown dust or other factors. The company also intends to allow the system to warn drivers of approaching emergency vehicles.

JapanToday.

IHI says it has developed world's smallest turbocharger for vehicles

TOKYO — IHI Corp said Monday it has developed what it claims is the world's smallest turbocharger for vehicles and plans to manufacture 100,000 units of the product annually for Daihatsu Motor Co's minivehicles.

The turbocharger, which is about 20 percent smaller than existing models, will work to enhance engine output through aerodynamic effects, IHI, one of Japan's major heavy machinery makers, said.

JapanToday.

Age verification card for tobacco vending machine introduced

A vending machine scans a taspo card/Photo by Taro Fujimoto

TOKYO — The Tobacco Institute of Japan (TIOJ) on Friday started accepting applications for an age verification card for tobacco vending machines at a promotional event held in Roppongi. The card, called "taspo," will be introduced nationwide from March in order to prevent underage smoking.

The new system requires cigarette buyers to use the taspo IC card before they can use a vending machine. Anyone aged over 20 can apply by sending an application form together with a photograph and a photocopy of identification. Registration is free and the card will be issued within two weeks after applying.

Hitomichi Tanaka, a spokesperson for the TIOJ, says, "The application form is only in Japanese. In the case of foreigners, only an alien registration card is acceptable as identification. So those who are visiting Japan temporarily will have to buy cigarettes over the counter at shops."

Yuki Kuzuya, 24, who was visiting from Nagoya, said: "I think taspo will work in preventing underage smoking. It's inconvenient to have to carry the card all the time but it's better than being unable to buy cigarettes."

JapanToday.