Will Quantum Computing Deliver a Big Leap Forward for Battery Cells?

(Electrik.co) The Cologne-headquartered German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) in the UK is the latest pair to explore how quantum computing could help create better simulation models for battery development. The DLR is Germany’s research center for aeronautics and space.
Improving battery cells has an important role to play in electric cars, green energy storage, and frequency stabilization of the energy grid. Battery research could also eventually reduce reliance on lithium. Battery demand for electric cars and renewable energy storage is going to skyrocket.
DLR will render its quantum simulations on an IBM Q quantum computer using CQC’s software development framework for execution on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum computers. DLR will use CQC’s quantum algorithms for solving partial differential equation systems to render a one-dimensional simulation of a lithium-ion battery cell.
This will lay the groundwork for exploring multi-scale simulations of complete battery cells with quantum computers, which are considered a viable alternative for rendering full 3D models. A multi-scale approach incorporates information from different system levels (e.g., atomistic, molecular, and macroscopic) to make a simulation more manageable and realistic.