I met with Mathias Steiner, who is a researcher out of the Rio de Janeiro IBM lab. He was talking about the amazing work that IBM is doing with a network of labs all working on sustainability, and material discovery focused on carbon capture and storage.
There are two ways to remove pollutants from the atmosphere. One is to stop producing them and let the Earth heal itself, and another is to pull the CO2 out of the atmosphere and put it somewhere else, ideally into a storage facility that will keep it contained indefinitely. These two approaches aren’t mutually exclusive and, if used together, could make material changes in the quality of our air and water while reversing much of what is currently causing climate change.
Let’s talk about that this week.
This is an interesting and relatively new approach to getting CO2 out of the atmosphere. You pick a substance that can contain CO2, something like lava rock which has lots of air cavities, and you use that substance to store captured CO2. You can either perform this process subsurface in existing geological formations or use it as building material (if the process doesn’t release CO2), and you’ve effectively sequestered (locked up) this gas much as you would a person who has committed a crime.
Currently, there is a massive amount of work going on to find or create the ideal substances for carbon sequestration. In the process, new carbon capture and conversion materials have been found. This technology is being adapted to other forms of material research, like finding superior materials for energy storage, and could open a pathway to replacements for declining supplies of the rare earth metals that are crucial to electronics manufacturing.
Complex materials are very difficult to analyze. The analysis requires massive amounts of computational power and simulations at scale to determine both the effectiveness of the material and ways to use it more efficiently. This means that computational workloads from the analysts vary greatly, from simple database queries to full molecular analyses to test the viability of the resulting theory once a possible ideal candidate for the effort is discovered.
Validating hybrid cloud
This massive variability in computational power is ideal for a hybrid and multi-cloud environment because you don’t need to buy the supercomputer power you only occasionally need. Instead, you can rent it. And you can pick from several providers to find the most affordable instance that you need to do the work. The more money you save doing the research, the more money you have to do additional research, which could increase the probability of finding the ideal material for a particular task like carbon sequestration.
IBM’s approach is to enable companies to have a variety of cloud resources and materials discovery tools at their disposal that can be dynamically selected based on need and centrally managed to assure the lowest cost and highest security. The most secure efforts tied to either Watson or quantum computing largely take place in the IBM Cloud, as well.
This level of flexibility and capability is unique in the segment. Given it is IBM labs doing much of the work, it’s a clear benefit to IBM and the ongoing effort to reduce CO2 and mitigate climate change.
Carbon sequestration and unique material identification have broad applications, from reducing carbon in the atmosphere to finding new and better materials to build almost anything, including revolutionary batteries and manufacturing materials. The effort is also a showcase for IBM’s multi-cloud approach because it requires resource availability ranging from local workstations to remote supercomputers depending on the phase of the project and the nature of the analysis and simulation.
In the end, this carbon sequestration effort has far-reaching implications across a variety of industries, and as a showcase for hybrid multi-cloud, it is impressively powerful as well.
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Mathias Steiner, Mtafiti wa IBM "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, IBM ina ""mitandao ya maabara ambayo inafanya kazi juu ya uendelevu na uvumbuzi wa vifaa vinavyozingatia kukamata na kuhifadhi kaboni.""" Kuna njia mbili za kuondoa uchafuzi wa hewa katika angahewa. "Mmoja ni kuacha kuzalisha na kuruhusu dunia kujirekebisha, na mwingine ni kuondoa CO2 kutoka angahewa na kuiweka mahali pengine, bora katika kituo cha kuhifadhi ambacho kitaiweka kwa muda usiojulikana. """ Njia hizi mbili hazipingani na, ikiwa zitatumika pamoja, zinaweza kufanya mabadiliko makubwa katika ubora wa hewa na maji yetu wakati wa kubadilisha mengi ya kile kinachosababisha mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa. Hebu tuzungumze juu ya hilo wiki hii. Hii ni mbinu mpya na ya kushangaza ya kuondoa CO2 kutoka angahewa. Kwa mfano, unaweza kuchagua kitu ambacho kinaweza kuwa na CO2 (kama mwamba wa lava) na kutumia chombo hicho kuhifadhi CO2 iliyokamatwa. Unaweza kufanya mchakato huu chini ya ardhi katika maumbo ya kijiolojia yaliyopo au kuitumia kama nyenzo ya ujenzi (kama mchakato hauwezi kutolewa CO2) na umefunga gesi hii kwa ufanisi kama ungefanya mtu ambaye amefanya uhalifu. Kwa sasa, kuna kazi nyingi inayofanywa ili kupata au kutengeneza vitu bora vya kuhifadhi kaboni. Katika mchakato huo, vifaa vipya vya kukamata na kubadilisha kaboni vimepatikana. Teknolojia hii inabadilishwa kwa aina nyingine za utafiti wa vifaa, kama vile kupata vifaa bora kwa ajili ya kuhifadhi nishati, na inaweza kufungua njia ya badala kwa kupungua kwa ugavi wa madini ya ardhi nadra ambayo ni muhimu kwa utengenezaji wa vifaa vya elektroniki. Ni vigumu sana kuchanganua vitu vilivyo tata. Uchambuzi huo unahitaji nguvu kubwa ya kompyuta na simulation kwa kiwango cha kuamua ufanisi wa vifaa na njia za kuitumia kwa ufanisi zaidi. Hii inamaanisha kwamba mzigo wa kazi ya hesabu kutoka kwa wachambuzi hutofautiana sana, kutoka kwa maswali rahisi ya hifadhidata hadi uchambuzi kamili wa molekuli, kujaribu uwezekano wa nadharia inayotokana mara tu mgombea bora wa juhudi hiyo anapogunduliwa. Kuhakikishia wingu mseto Hii tofauti kubwa katika nguvu ya hesabu ni bora kwa ajili ya mazingira mseto na multi-wingu kwa sababu huna haja ya kununua supercomputer nguvu unahitaji tu mara kwa mara. Badala yake, unaweza kukodisha nyumba hiyo. Unaweza kuchagua kutoka kwa watoa huduma kadhaa ili kupata mfano wa bei nafuu zaidi unaohitaji kufanya kazi. Kwa hivyo, kwa kuwa pesa nyingi zinahitajika, ni muhimu kufanya utafiti zaidi, na uwezekano wa kupata vifaa bora kwa kazi fulani kama vile kuhifadhi kaboni unazidi. IBM ina uwezo wa kuwezesha makampuni kuwa na aina mbalimbali ya wingu rasilimali na vifaa kugundua zana katika disposal yao ambayo inaweza dynamically kuchaguliwa kulingana na haja na kusimamiwa kwa njia ya kati ili kuhakikisha gharama ya chini na usalama wa juu. Kwa mfano, teknolojia ya kompyuta ya Watson na kompyuta ya quantum ni sawa na IBM Cloud. Kiwango hiki cha kubadilika na uwezo ni ya kipekee katika sehemu. Kwa kuzingatia kwamba ni maabara ya IBM kufanya kazi nyingi, ni faida ya wazi kwa IBM na juhudi za kuendelea kupunguza CO2 na kupunguza mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa. Kuhifadhi kaboni na utambulisho wa vifaa vya kipekee vina matumizi pana, kutoka kupunguza kaboni katika anga hadi kupata vifaa vipya na bora vya kujenga karibu chochote, pamoja na betri za mapinduzi na vifaa vya utengenezaji. "Jitihada hii pia ni maonyesho ya mbinu ya IBM ya wingu nyingi kwa sababu inahitaji upatikanaji wa rasilimali kuanzia vituo vya kazi vya ndani hadi kompyuta kubwa za mbali kulingana na hatua ya mradi na asili ya uchambuzi na simulation. """ Kwa kweli, juhudi hizi za kuhifadhi kaboni zina athari kubwa katika tasnia mbalimbali, na kama maonyesho ya wingu nyingi za mseto, ni nguvu sana pia. "Hatari mpya, matatizo makubwa zaidi - Februari 23, 2024 - Lenovo Ushirika na Anaconda kwa AI kupanua uongozi wake wa kituo cha kazi - Februari 19, 2024 - AI na mlolongo wa usambazaji: Kufanya Kampuni zaidi za Kubadilika - Februari 9, 2024"