Chemists at Microsoft Azure Quantum are teaming up with Johnson Matthey, a British-based clean-tech company, to identify new types of catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells.
The project demonstrates how quantum information science could help reduce the automobile industry’s carbon footprint and address the challenge of climate change.
“So far, Johnson Matthey has seen a twofold acceleration in quantum chemistry calculations, and we’re just getting started,” Nathan Baker, senior director of partnerships for chemistry and materials at Microsoft, said today in a blog posting. “Both companies recognize that the discoveries needed to create a zero-carbon future will require significant breakthroughs in chemical and materials science, and are enthusiastic about the difference we can make in the world together.”
Johnson Matthey is a global leader in the production of catalysts for the transportation and energy industry sectors. One out of every three cars on the road uses a Johnson Matthey catalyst in the exhaust system to reduce harmful emissions.
Catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells are another focus of Johnson Matthey’s business: Those chemicals facilitate the reactions that use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with plain old H2O as the exhaust. But the most effective fuel-cell catalyst available today is platinum, which is rare and expensive. To drive down the cost, Johnson Matthey’s researchers are trying to develop alternative alloy catalysts that use less platinum.
That’s where Azure Quantum enters the picture. Quantum-inspired algorithms — which capitalize on some of the exotic twists of quantum physics — are particularly well-suited for simulating and optimizing complex interactions like the ones involved in designing new materials ranging from pharmaceuticals and fertilizers to fuel-cell catalysts.
Azure Quantum’s chemists helped Johnson Matthey’s researchers develop new predictive modeling tools that had the effect of accelerating their nanoparticle simulations. The simulations were run on Azure HPC. Microsoft’s cloud-based supercomputing platform.
“With Azure HPC, we’ve seen about a 50% speedup on some of our chemistry calculations that we run — which is critical for R&D because every second counts, not just for getting the results quickly, but also in terms of cost and throughput,” said Glenn Jones, research manager at the Johnson Matthey Technology Center.
The work so far sets the stage for even bigger advances as full-scale quantum computing hits its stride.
“Since we’re using Azure, we are quantum-ready and on the path to tap into the power of quantum computers once available in the cloud through Azure Quantum,” Jones said. “This will revolutionize how we conduct chemistry simulations.”
