SEEQC, a digital quantum computing company, and BASF, a chemical company, have formed a partnership to explore the application of quantum computing in chemical reactions. 

The research will specifically explore the potential of quantum in dissolved catalysts, otherwise known as homogeneous catalysis.

BASF joins the SEEQC-led QuPharma project, launched in 2021 to explore how quantum computing can accelerate the process of drug discovery, in partnership with Merck KGaA.

The partnership expands the commercial focus of the project to include simulations important for the chemical industry.

“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.”

Matthew Hutchings, SEEQC’s chief product officer and co-founder said: “Partnering with BASF enables SEEQC to further expand the commercial targets of our application-specific quantum computing platform. Working with a chemical industry leader like BASF further validates our scalable quantum computing roadmap and strengthens our application-driven platform development.”

“We are excited to have BASF join the project,” said Philipp Harbach, global head of group digital innovation, at Merck KGaA. “This complements our work with SEEQC and the QuPharma partners and will ultimately push the chemical and pharmaceutical industry towards realizing a quantum advantage earlier.”

SEEQC will use its proprietary digital chip-based quantum computer to scale support of commercial simulations in industrial catalysts. The industrial catalysts targeted in this project are particularly challenging to simulate with today’s computers, yet they form the basis of one of the largest homogeneously catalyzed reactions in the industry, producing nearly 10 million metric tons of oxo chemicals each year.

By partnering with SEEQC in the QuPharma project, BASF will apply its substantial expertise to critical pharmaceutical research. Combined with SEEQC’s scalable chip-based quantum computer platform, this expertise can effectively tackle challenges and offer accuracy in simulations of chemical structures.

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 was awarded a $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, including the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre and the Hartree Centre.

Through the QuPharma project, SEEQC is providing its end customers with a clear roadmap for when quantum computing will provide commercial value to their businesses. In an effort to increase reliability, and investment, SEEQC will deliver key scalable platform features, including low-latency digital readout, stable digital multiplexing and more along this roadmap through the QuPharma project.