BASF has partnered with digital quantum computing company Seeqc to see if the technology may hold potential for use in chemical reactions, Seeqc said in a news release Feb. 9.
BASF has joined Seeqc’s QuPharma project, launched in 2021 to explore how quantum computing can accelerate the process of drug discovery. BASF’s partnership expands the commercial focus of this project to include simulations important for the chemical industry, according to Seeqc.
The research will specifically explore the potential of quantum computing in dissolved catalysts, otherwise known as homogeneous catalysis.
Seeqc will use its proprietary digital chip-based quantum computer to scale support of commercial simulations in industrial catalysts.
“Seeqc is addressing the bottlenecks of scaling by integrating critical system functionality on a unique system-on-a-chip quantum computing platform,” said Horst Weiss, vice president, next generation computing at BASF. “By partnering with Seeqc, we can investigate how to map our specific use-case to its unique technology, achieving an earlier advantage in the NISQ era and exploring how it can scale with fault-tolerant quantum computing.”
According to Seeqc, quantum computers have the potential to complete specific algorithms at higher speeds and greater accuracy that are far more powerful than the most advanced supercomputers. The company explains on its website that classical computing processes and manipulates data in the binary language, or a series of 1s and 0s. Data in this format can only be in one state at a time – either a 1 or 0. Quantum computers use qubits to store and manipulate information but can do so in many states simultaneously.
The QuPharma project launched in November 2021 to build and deliver a full-stack quantum computer that can be used alongside classical supercomputers to speed up the drug development process. Seeqc received a US$9 million contract to lead the project, along with a consortium of partners spanning the quantum computing supply chain including Riverlane, Oxford Instruments, the University of Oxford, Medicines Discovery Catapult and members from the Science and Technology Facilities Council.