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This week’s Digital Content Expo at Miraikan is one of the less corporate tech shows on the Tokyo calendar, so it’s no surprise to see some pretty kooky engineering like the Funbrella from a grad-student team at Osaka University.

As the world’s supply of fossil fuels shrinks, it’s heartening to see one company pressing ahead with serious plans for alternative ways to power our homes.

Details are scarce on this one, but sources in Japan are reporting that Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings is seriously engaged in research that aims to move the chemical industry away from oil dependence towards a future based on something altogether more illuminating.

Hydrogen fuel cells are clearly a great idea, but the fact that much of the gas that goes into them still comes from fossil fuels is a bit of a problem. That’s why researchers are looking at alternative sources of hydrogen from substances as diverse as dough and sewage.

A thin mat that creates electricity from footsteps has been installed at Tokyo’s Shibuya train station to harness the kinetic energy they expend as they pass through ticket gates twice a day.

When it comes to safely storing hydrogen for car fuel cells, Buckytubes may be the future, but the here and now appears to be carbon fibers that can contain a lot more of the pressurized gas.