Why Computational Chemistry May Be Quantum's First Killer App

1. Finding a catalyst for carbon sequestration to help control CO2 emissions and global warming

2. Finding a catalyst that could replace the expensive Haber-Bosch process to produce ammonia for fertilizers

3. Finding a new high temperature superconductor to make superconducting cables cost effective

4. Finding a new material for improved batteries Another attractive aspect of these problems is that they may not require massively large quantum computers to perform these calculations.  While factoring a large number using Shor's algorithm, may require massive machines that contain hundreds of thousands or millions of qubits, many of these computational chemistry calculations may be possible with machines that contain only a few hundred or a few thousand qubits.  We do expect quantum computers of these smaller sizes to be available within the next few years. So it will be interesting to see what happens, but we do predict that a lot of companies will be putting significant effort into quantum computational chemistry in the coming years.