(HoustonChronicle) Exxon Mobil is the first energy company to join the new IBM Q Network of Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions and research labs to work with the newly unveiled quantum computing system. Exxon Mobil contends the new quantum computing network will lead to new breakthroughs in petrochemicals, electric grid optimization and climate change modeling.
Exxon Mobil also cited the potential to use more accurate quantum chemistry calculations for the discovery of new materials to enhance carbon capture at power plants and other pollution sources.
“The scale and complexity of many challenges we face in our business surpass the limits of today’s traditional computers,” said Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. “Quantum computing can potentially provide us with capabilities to simulate nature and chemistry that we’ve never had before.”