Energy & Quantum: Grid Optimization and Resource Location

In addition, Multiverse is working with another energy company in Spain on smart grid technology that can help power grids detect and react to local changes in electricity usage. “If we install solar panels, we can generate energy at our houses and inject it into the grid, but this is not a trivial matter — you can’t just inject anything you want whenever you want,” Cuenca said. “You need to pay attention to the capacity and the safety of the whole grid. This becomes challenging the larger the network grows, and quantum computing may be able to help in optimizing the operation of smart grids to help them scale up.”

Quantum computers may also find use simulating fluid flows using so-called quantum machine learning algorithms — essentially, a quantum version of artificial intelligence software. This in turn suggests they may find use in weather forecasting.

For instance, Multiverse is using quantum computing for weather forecasting for one of the leading renewable energy companies in Spain. “If you use wind, you need to know when it may be windy or not, and if you use solar, you need to know when it may be cloudy or not,” Cuenca said. “You need to know when to inject that energy into the grid.”

Numerous companies are also investigating using quantum computing to improve batteries. Quantum computers are theoretically better than classical computers at modeling the kinds of chemical reactions on which batteries depend, as both quantum computers and molecules are governed by quantum physics.

For example, Hyundai Motor Company has partnered with quantum computing startup IonQ to see how quantum computers can design advanced batteries to analyze and simulate the structure and energy of lithium compounds for the auto manufacturer’s electric vehicle batteries. Similarly, quantum computing firm Quantinuum teamed up with Ford Motor Company to analyze the chemistry of lithium cobalt oxide, a compound often used in lithium-ion batteries. They found quantum computers may accurately simulate it, suggesting it could help model other molecules that may find use in next-generation batteries.

In addition, Quantinuum has helped BMW simulate electrode reactions in hydrogen fuel cells, with the goal of optimizing efficiency and reliability. Fuel cells convert the chemical energy stored in fuels such as hydrogen into electricity, and fuel cells that run off hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, hold great promise as clean, efficient sources of energy. When hydrogen reacts with oxygen in fuel cells to generate electricity, instead of yielding pollutants as fossil fuels do, the result is simply water. 

“Quantum computing may help us develop better catalysts to help in fuel cell reactions and may also help us develop industrial processes to create hydrogen at scale,” Cuenca said.

By simulating fluid flow, quantum computing may also help earth scientists learn more about underground natural resources such as petrochemical reservoirs and groundwater aquifers. These geological formations can prove challenging for regular computers to model, given their extremely complex structures and the similarly complicated interactions between the fluids and solids within them.

“Geoscience poses some of the most difficult problems that must be solved numerically,” said Dr. Muhammad Sahimi, chair of petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California. However, “algorithms that can be used for solving such problems on a quantum computer have been developed.” For instance, Sahimi is now developing a way to analyze porous rocks on a quantum computer from quantum computing pioneer D-Wave.

Similarly, Henderson and her colleagues developed two quantum algorithms for modeling fluid flow through fractured rock. Although one requires quantum computers that are far less error-prone than current experimental machines, the other may still prove useful given modern quantum computers.

“Not every quandary we’d like to solve will be better with quantum,” Henderson said. Still, “the potential great news is this — quantum computing might render solvable certain problems that classical computing could essentially never solve.”