Supercomputing Filters for Greenhouse Gases

Is it hot enough for you this summer? Thanks to HPC, help may be on the way.

Researchers at Haverford College are using NERSC supercomputers to develop better ways to filter out power plant Carbon Dioxide emissions, one of the primary greenhouse gases contributing to global climate change.

Nitrogen and carbon dioxide are linear molecules, and the holes are too small to allow them to enter in any way other than along their ‘skinniest’ dimensions,” says Haverford Assistant Professor of Chemistry Joshua Schrier, who authored a paper on the reasearch. “As it turns out, carbon dioxide is a little skinnier than nitrogen, which allows it to pass through the hole more readily.”

Using NERSC’s Hopper system, Schrier’s detailed molecular simulations were made possible by a NERSC Initiative for Scientific Exploration award of 500,000 CPU hours and an allocation of 450,000 CPU hours by the DoE’s Basic Energy Sciences Program. Read the Full Story.