Anian Virtual Lab

阿尼安虚拟实验室

• 批准号: 80879
• 金额: $ 7.57万
• 依托单位: RIVERLANE LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Small Business Research Initiative
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=80879
• 关键词: Anian; Virtual; Lab

The UK government has recently identified several important industries for significant investment and innovation. These industries are vital for the UK's future economic, social, and environmental prosperity. The government has also set ambitious environmental targets, including the achievement of net-zero emissions by 2050 to end the UK's contribution to global warming. One of these industries is battery technology. £246m has been allocated to the Faraday Battery Challenge, addressing research in areas such as battery materials identification, enhancement, and recycling. £153m has also been allocated to quantum technologies, including the enhancement of conventional computers with quantum computing capabilities. This is a fundamentally different approach to computing, using the properties of quantum systems to provide massive improvements in computational speed and accuracy. However, as for many industries, battery and quantum technologies have suffered disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has stalled research progress and made it harder to future-proof the batteries industry through engagement with disruptive technology like quantum computing. Our project uses quantum computing to address a long-standing bottleneck faced by researchers who develop battery materials. They find it challenging to accurately and efficiently identify and screen new battery materials. Current methods are very unreliable and involve a 'trial and error' approach. It takes several years to verify new battery materials in the lab. This is highly costly and time-consuming for a materials development company. Global annual spend on materials screening, selection, and performance testing exceeds £40bn (Boston Consulting Group 2019). We will create, develop and commercialise a quantum-enhanced battery materials screening product. It will be set up in a 'virtual lab' environment, so that researchers do not need to be physically present in a lab to conduct their research during the pandemic. We will fully integrate our product into the existing processes of two clean energy materials companies - Johnson Matthey and Merck -- to check that it works. We will therefore create an unrivalled "quantum-ready" product, "Anian VL", developed to support customer needs and providing commercial advantage in these challenging times. More broadly, our ambition is to create a game-changing product and make it available to major battery materials companies to make their research easier and quicker. This will lead to societal and economic benefits aligned to cleaner, more sustainable technology.

英国政府最近确定了几个需要大量投资和创新的重要行业。这些行业对英国未来的经济、社会和环境繁荣至关重要。政府还制定了雄心勃勃的环境目标，包括到2050年实现净零排放，以结束英国对全球变暖的贡献。其中一个行业是电池技术。2.46亿英镑已被分配给法拉第电池挑战赛，用于电池材料识别、增强和回收等领域的研究。1.53亿英镑也被分配给量子技术，包括增强具有量子计算能力的传统计算机。这是一种根本不同的计算方法，利用量子系统的特性来大幅提高计算速度和准确性。然而，与许多行业一样，电池和量子技术因COVID-19疫情而受到干扰。这阻碍了研究进展，并使得电池行业更难通过与量子计算等颠覆性技术的接触来适应未来。我们的项目使用量子计算来解决开发电池材料的研究人员长期面临的瓶颈。他们发现准确有效地识别和筛选新电池材料具有挑战性。目前的方法是非常不可靠的，涉及一个'试错'的方法。在实验室中验证新的电池材料需要几年时间。这对于材料开发公司来说成本高昂且耗时。全球每年在材料筛选、选择和性能测试方面的支出超过400亿英镑（波士顿咨询集团，2019年）。我们将创建、开发和商业化量子增强电池材料筛选产品。它将建立在一个“虚拟实验室”的环境中，这样研究人员就不需要在大流行期间亲自在实验室进行研究。我们将把我们的产品完全整合到两家清洁能源材料公司--约翰逊万丰和默克--的现有工艺中，以检查它是否有效。因此，我们将创造一个无与伦比的“量子就绪”产品“Anian VL”，以支持客户的需求，并在这些充满挑战的时代提供商业优势。更广泛地说，我们的目标是创造一种改变游戏规则的产品，并将其提供给主要的电池材料公司，使他们的研究更容易，更快。这将带来与更清洁、更可持续的技术相一致的社会和经济效益。