Global energy trends are rapidly evolving toward the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050. On the demand side, changes are also occurring due to the significant increase in electricity demand accompanying the widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the construction of data centers driven by digital transformation. In these circumstances, green transformation (GX) is advancing to simultaneously achieve a stable power supply, reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and economic growth.

Toshiba Corporation is promoting the realization of GX through the development of the following thermal power generation technologies: (1) decarbonization technologies for fossil fuel-based thermal power plants, building on accumulated thermal cycle technologies for thermal and geothermal power generation; (2) enhanced technologies to adjust to output fluctuations associated with the introduction of renewable energy systems; (3) thermal energy storage technologies; (4) technologies to effectively utilize low-temperature energy; and (5) energy management technologies to optimize entire power generation systems.

KIMURA Kenichi / OKUYAMA Tomomi / ONO Yasunori

Thermal power generation fulfills a critical role in maintaining stable electricity supply as a major power source capable of adjusting output power to fluctuations resulting from the widespread adoption of renewable energy sources, even in a society in which achieving carbon neutrality is a top priority. This has created a need for thermal power plants with lower environmental impact and higher reliability.

In response to this trend, Toshiba Corporation is developing the following technologies: (1) technologies for high-efficiency steam turbines and low-environmental-impact gas turbine combined-cycle (GTCC) power plants not only to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from thermal power plant flue gas but also to respond to future fuel conversion from fossil fuels to hydrogen, ammonia, etc.; and (2) condition monitoring and remaining life assessment technologies using digital tools to reduce the impact on equipment life due to the increasing number of start-stop operations and high load variations associated with the growing use of renewable energy systems.

IWASA Kiyohiko / FUJITA Koshito / MURAI Shinji

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, which can separate and capture CO₂ in combustion flue gas and isolate and store CO₂ underground, have been attracting attention as a countermeasure against global warming. However, the widespread implementation of CCUS technologies in society requires reductions in both construction and operating costs.

Toshiba Corporation has developed TS-X, an amine-based CO₂ solvent capable of efficiently capturing CO₂, and evaluated its performance at a CO₂ capture plant delivered to a waste incineration facility in Saga City. As a result, we have verified that the amine degradation rate of TS-X solvent is reduced to approximately one-third of that of our conventional TS-1 solvent, thereby enabling more economical operation of CO₂ capture plants.

MURAYAMA Dai / KONDO Jun / KAWANO Shohei

In response to energy-related social issues in Japan and other countries, Toshiba Corporation has been developing and supplying the following digital transformation (DX) technologies to support thermal power generation companies throughout the life cycle of thermal power plants, from operation to maintenance: (1) an online insulation diagnostic technology to achieve condition‑based maintenance by quantitatively evaluating the remaining service life based on operating conditions, in order to address increased mechanical stresses on thermal power plants caused by frequency control and the operational adjustments required to secure balancing capabilities; (2) a boiler combustion optimization technology for biomass power plants to integrally control multiple parameters, improving the combustion efficiency of a plant where the technology has been implemented by up to 0.24%; and (3) a technology to optimize the operational performance across an entire fleet of power generation assets owned by each company, based on technologies for individual power plants—not only by applying tertiary control reserves and additional operating constraints to economic dispatch systems for multiple power plants, but also by enhancing the system redundancy—thereby enabling 24/7 operations.

MIKI Hiromutsu / MATSUZAKI Akihiro / MAWATARI Takashi

From the viewpoint of promoting green transformation (GX), establishing renewable energy as a main power source is desired. In this context, large‑scale rock‑bed thermal energy storage and energy management technology is attracting considerable interest as a solution for balancing electricity supply and demand, due to its significantly lower environmental burden, higher safety, and greater reliability compared with other energy storage technologies.

As part of the development of this technology, Toshiba Corporation has built a 500 kWh‑class mock-up test facility and conducted heat charging and discharging tests to grasp the energy storage capacity of the thermal storage tank, thereby establishing a technology to predict the temperature distribution in the tank. Utilizing these results, we are constructing a 10 MWh‑class demonstration system and planning to complete demonstration tests within FY 2026.

INOUE Shota / YAMAMOTO Yasushi

To promote energy conservation, Toshiba Corporation is developing an amine-carbon dioxide (CO₂) cycle binary power generation system to effectively utilize low-temperature waste heat emitted from industrial processes and power plants at temperatures of 80°C to 150°C. The system achieves enhanced safety and higher power output compared with conventional binary power generation systems by using an environmentally friendly CO₂-absorbed amine aqueous solution. Through demonstration tests on a 100 kW‑class prototype, we have established process optimization and operation control schemes for the power generation system. In the future, we will develop a commercial prototype, evaluate long-term changes in equipment, and establish the optimal maintenance and management methods toward commercialization.

SHIRAKAWA Masakazu / MARUYAMA Masashi / URAYOSHI Daiki

The expanding deployment of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources and the shift toward interconnected energy systems that cooperatively operate diverse facilities have created a need for thermal power generation technologies with emergent capabilities for designing and operating efficient energy systems.

Toshiba Corporation has developed an energy management technology integrating operation planning, simulation, and automatic control, leading to increased flexibility and operability of interconnected energy systems by taking advantage of thermal power generation capable of compensating for power fluctuations. We are continuing our efforts to further advance the following core technologies: (1) value-oriented design based on model‑based systems engineering (MBSE), (2) high‑speed, high‑accuracy reduced‑order models (ROMs) and digital twins, and (3) energy management systems (EMS) in conjunction with cloud systems.

Feature Articles

KONDO Atsumi / TAMASHIRO Masaki / YAMAMOTO Takahiro

Toshiba Corporation offers a service that diagnoses the deterioration of existing battery storage systems incorporating SCiB™ cells and reports the results to customers.

To evaluate battery cell performance degradation, we have carried out a deterioration diagnosis of battery storage systems equipped with SCiB™ cells at 31 disaster-resilient photovoltaic installations at sites in Sendai City, using time-series battery data from this service and temperature data estimated using both data from the Japan Meteorological Agency and measurements taken at a typical site. From the results of estimations based on a voltage standard deviation method, we have confirmed that all evaluated battery storage systems maintained a capacity retention rate of more than 90% after approximately 10 years, thus demonstrating long service life of SCiB™. The battery deterioration diagnosis service will contribute to life-cycle cost reduction and renewal planning for battery storage systems.

MARUCHI Kohei / YAMAMOTO Takahiro / HATANO Hisaaki

The introduction of battery systems into social infrastructure has been accelerating in recent years with the increasing use of renewable energy and the electrification of mobility. State-of-health (SOH) monitoring of battery systems is therefore required for the stable operation of social infrastructure.

Toshiba Corporation has developed a voltage deviation method to estimate SOH from time-series operating data obtained from battery systems. In large-scale battery systems, however, it is difficult to detect local degradation and identify the degraded area from SOH alone. To address this issue, we have developed the following new monitoring technologies: (1) a technology to detect local degradation by using SOH_ratio, a new index derived from the distribution of maximum and minimum cell voltages in battery systems, together with the voltage deviation method focusing on the spread of the degraded battery voltage distribution; and (2) a technology to identify degraded battery modules by estimating identification (ID) information of battery modules, including measured maximum and minimum cell voltages and maximum temperature. We have confirmed the effectiveness of the new monitoring technologies by applying these technologies combined with SOH to electric buses and grid-connected battery energy storage systems.

KAWAMURA Naoki / ITO Satoshi / TAKIMOTO Takahiro

The dissemination of image anomaly detection technologies, which are utilized for various applications, including visual inspection of products in the industrial field, infrastructure monitoring systems, and surveillance camera systems, is driving demand for sophisticated anomaly detection applications with the advent of vision-language models (VLMs), which enable advanced analysis by pre-training jointly on both text and images. However, ambiguous prompts may lead to fluctuations in accuracy or excessive detections of anomalies may frequently occur.

To address these issues, Toshiba Corporation has developed a new image anomaly detection method using multiple normal images to reduce ambiguous prompts by adjusting them in advance, as well as to suppress excessive detections by correcting images when inferring anomaly detection. Experiments using open datasets have confirmed the effectiveness of the new method.

UCHIDA Kenya / UEMATSU Ikuo / FUKUI Hiroyuki / IWAMOTO Takeaki

In the semiconductor manufacturing processes using silicon (Si)-containing gases, explosive oily silane residues accumulate on the inner walls of the equipment depending on the operating conditions and must be removed during periodic equipment maintenance.

In cooperation with Kioxia Corporation and Tohoku University, Toshiba Corporation has verified—through investigations of oily silanes and their hydrolysates using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and ballistic mortar tests—that a mixture of unhydrolyzed and hydrolyzed silanes is the most hazardous. Through various instrumental analyses, we have estimated that the main components of oily silanes are cyclic chlorosilanes, whereas those of hydrolyzed silanes are hydroxysiloxanes with Si-Si bonds, thereby elucidating the mechanism of explosive reactions. As part of these efforts, we have developed a safe decomposition method, along with an operational guideline to confirm the disappearance of reactive Si-Si bonds by monitoring reaction progress using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‑IR).

Frontiers of Research & Development

Automated In-Store Product Classification Using Receipt Printing Information to Precisely Analyze Purchase Data

*Company, product, and service names appearing in each paper include those that are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Vol. 81, No. 3, May 2026

Index