Embracing the Quantum Economy 2024

Use cases covered in energy and utilities A.1.5Use cases covered in chemicals and advanced materials (continued) A.1.4 Quantum sensing Product quality check Quantum magnetometers can be used for highly sensitive and precise measurements of magnetic fields, which are crucial in various industrial applications. In product quality checks, quantum magnetometers can detect minute defects or inconsistencies in materials and products that traditional methods might miss. This ensures higher quality standards, reduces waste and enhances the reliability of products, particularly in industries such as electronics, aerospace and manufacturing. Quantum-enhanced quality imagingThese techniques improve the resolution and sensitivity of product quality imaging devices, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis of rips in the supply chain and making it possible to fix these. Quantum-enhanced imaging techniques utilize quantum properties to achieve higher resolution and sensitivity than classical imaging methods. These techniques can detect minute details and subtle changes in materials that would be difficult or impossible to observe with traditional imaging technologies. Throughout the supply chain, quantum-enhanced imaging can be used to monitor the condition of materials and products. For example, it can detect rips or damage in packaging, ensuring that products are not compromised during transportation and storage. Last-mile quality controlQuantum acoustic sensors detect minute vibrations and sounds. In the final stages of the supply chain, quantum acoustic sensors can be deployed to perform thorough quality checks. This ensures that any issues that might have arisen during transportation or final assembly are identified and addressed before the product reaches the customer. Quantum communication and security More resilient keys for secure supply-chain data transmissionQRNGs produce keys that are fundamentally unpredictable, making them highly secure. These keys can be used in encryption algorithms to encode sensitive supply-chain data, ensuring that the data cannot be easily decrypted by unauthorized parties. Quantum-secure internal data communication channelsQuantum-secure internal data communication channels leverage PQC and QKD to protect data against quantum computing threats. PQC develops cryptographic algorithms resistant to quantum attacks, while QKD uses quantum mechanics to securely distribute encryption keys, ensuring any eavesdropping attempts are detected. Combining PQC and QKD ensures that sensitive information exchanged during transactions is protected from eavesdropping and tampering. Quantum computing Large-battery charging optimizationUsers can schedule the charging and discharging of large batteries based on energy prices to maximize profit, and this can be done using a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) approach. Using a quantum annealing algorithm with this QUBO model and live prices from the global electrical exchanges, users can find high-quality solutions for electricity trading, resulting in higher profits, lower computational costs and less strain on the power grid. Tailings treatment (Accenture and Quantum City)91Fine fluid tailings (FFT) are clay particles suspended in water and sand that result from the extraction of bitumen from oil sand ore. The current practice to treat tailings is to agglomerate the clays by using coagulation and flocculation. Traditionally, finding the optimal dosage of flocculants in tailings treatment involves numerous laboratory experiments. In a University of Calgary competition, Quantum City Challenge, Accenture won by using a hybrid quantum neural network to help find the best possible combination of flocculants and coagulants for tailings treatment. The quantum model is also benchmarked against state-of-the-art classical ML approaches. Optimization of supply-chain providersIt involves using advanced analytics and optimization techniques to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain. By analysing data from various sources, companies can identify the best suppliers, optimize inventory levels, reduce lead times and minimize costs. This process ensures a more resilient and responsive supply chain, improves service levels and enhances overall operational efficiency. It also enables better decision- making and strategic planning, leading to a competitive advantage in the market. Shallow subsurface imaging (Saudi Aramco)92This quantum application is an industry-first, industrial-scale quantum computing use case developed and integrated with in-house seismic data processing software. The application utilizes both classical computers and quantum annealers, leveraging the best of both, enabling processing of tens of gigabytes of seismic data, making it the largest application of its kind handling such data volume. Vehicle-to-grid optimization (Accenture)93The usage of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology is implemented as a so-called feed-in reward programme – the utility provider offers participating EV users a reward price to feed into the energy grid at specific times. The utility provider can control the amount of feed-in energy depending on the prices. The optimal reward prices for this demo maximize the utility provider’s profit. Finding them is the goal of a complex optimization problem that can be solved with classical, quantum and quantum-inspired methods. Embracing the Quantum Economy: A Pathway for Business Leaders 53