Italy’s Eni and Pasqal explore the intersection of HPC and quantum
Italian energy company Eni is working with France’s Pasqal, a company it invested in last year, to develop next-generation high-performance computing (HPC) solutions for the energy sector through quantum computing.
Eni provides a natural venue to explore how quantum computing can affect HPC. The firm operates one of the most powerful privately-owned supercomputers in the world, hosted in Eni’s Green Data Centre in Ferrera Erbognone (Italy), one of the most sustainable and energy-efficient data centers globally, and the company is applying computational methods to a great variety of different applications, such as numerical simulation of basins and reservoirs, magnetic fusion and renewable energies, among many others. The utilization of Pasqal’s proprietary algorithms will allow Eni to accelerate these and other fields of research and unlock new capabilities.
Announcement of the collaboration follows news from earlier this spring that Pasqal was working with oil giant Saudi ARAMCO. The French company has been particularly focused on the energy sector, among others.
Like others, Pasqal has been zeroing in on developing quantum algorithms to enhance existing HPC workflows for a broad range of applications. Those currently being researched by Eni run the length of its value chain, including Upstream, Downstream, Chemicals and Renewables, according to a statement announcing the collaboration.
Eni, like many energy companies, has been increasing its focus on reducing emissions and aiming for decarbonization. The company expects to offer fully decarbonised products and services by 2050.
“Digital and High Performance Computing is the driver to make us faster, more efficient and more responsible. Our HPC system is a vital tool to explore the energy of the future,” said Dario Pagani, Eni’s Head of Digital & High Performance Computing “Pasqal’s’s quantum computers will allow us to complement our conventional HPC workflows in areas such as optimization and machine learning and accelerate our research to create new solutions to the most pressing issues in the energy industry.”
Dan O’Shea has covered telecommunications and related topics including semiconductors, sensors, retail systems, digital payments and quantum computing/technology for over 25 years.
