Quantum technologies changing the way we tackle climate change
Society is increasingly tackling sustainability issues head-on: climate change, food insecurities, poverty, gender equality, clean energy, responsible consumption & production, - to name a few.
At the core of many sustainability challenges are the world’s most complex, computationally intensive, and classically challenging problems (e.g. in design, physics, and chemistry). Large companies spend millions to push performance limits through coupling advanced algorithms & specialized hardware systems (eg. HPC, GPUs). They do this for highly valuable applications where getting high quality answers in reasonable time frames matters greatly.
Now, Quantum Technology changes the nature of how we compute to find solutions, which are efficient and scalable, for certain instances through being faster, more accurate, and more optimal. The rapid advancements in Hybrid Quantum Algorithms and Co-Processor powered Compute Models are making possible sizeable improvements and are upending the way we think of building a sustainable society.
Considering the quantum benefit for sustainability application from a near term commercialization perspective, requires one to be highly cognizant of the limitations in the NISQ era to tackle real world scale problems. Here, hybrid quantum-classical capabilities are interesting to explore as they bring together the best of both worlds. And the prospects of finding practical advantages for specific applications today is attractive given the climate urgency.
The most interesting application areas for exploration are:
- Material Science x high precision simulation of molecules and reaction processes: Batteries Material Design for large scale energy storage and EVs; cost effective aqueous amine substrates for Carbon Capture
- Computational Energy Efficiency: Offloading intensive / complex workloads to Quantum Processing Units for better scaling and time to solution
- Combinatorial Optimization Problems within Carbon Intensive Industrial Processes: Plant Equipment Parameter Setting, System Layout, Distribution, scheduling and logistics
- Quantum Sensing: Higher efficiency solar cells, fossil fuel leak detection, Battery Diagnostics, Greenhouse Gas monitoring
The challenge in front of us is how to bring together the ecosystem and intelligence across Quantum Science, Climate Science, Policy and Entrepreneurs to craft quantum-powered applications for societal and sustainable gains and further accelerate addressing SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). We have the capability as a society through our insights and innovation across academia, start-ups, government institutions, researchers, and corporate citizens. At Entangle, we are enabling these types of discussions to persist, creating intimate spaces or community areas where we can bring together the ecosystem to solve society’s most pressing challenges.
We are just in the infancy of exploiting the differentiated capability quantum brings to our tool kits and our community platform gives us the opportunity to share progress, discuss use cases, and advance opportunities most relevant to Sustainability.
I hope that further reducing the obscurity of the art of the possible & barriers, we can all rally around a key global focus for the future of humankind that stands to make sizeable gains as part of the quantum adoption curve.
Authors Karan Pinto and Nicholas Lee, Co-Chief Entanglers, Entangle Community. Together they have spent the last 3 years focused on quantum technology commercialisation across sectors globally
Website: https://entangle.community/
Community: https://quantum.entangle.community/home
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/entangle-community/
Laura Foster
Laura is techUK’s Head of Programme for Technology and Innovation.
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
Elis Thomas
Elis joined techUK in December 2023 as a Programme Manager for Tech and Innovation, focusing on AI, Semiconductors and Digital ID.
