Eni launches supercomputer to drive decarbonisation

Italian multinational energy company Eni has launched its HPC6 supercomputer to tackle energy transition challenges.

The HPC6, installed at Eni’s green data centre in Ferrera Erbognone southwest of Milan, consists of over 3,400 computing nodes incorporating a total of almost 14,000 GPUs to provide a peak computing power of 606PFlop/s – over 600 quadrillion mathematical operations per second – and 477PFlops/s ‘sustained’.

With this the HPC6 offers a significant increase in computing power over the 2020 inaugurated HPC5 with a peak 52PFlops/s and it is ranked fifth globally and the first in Europe in the supercomputer ranking.

It also is declared as the world’s first industrial use supercomputer.

Have you read?
Waste heat from supercomputer to heat Scottish homes
How quantum computing is disrupting power utilities

The HPC6 is expected to play a role across the energy supply chain with particular problems it is planned to tackle including improving the accuracy of geological and fluid dynamic studies for carbon storage, developing higher performance batteries, simulating plasma behaviour in magnetic confinement fusion and optimising the operations of industrial facilities.

It will also be used to optimise the biofuel supply chain and to develop innovative materials for applications in biochemistry sectors.

“Innovation and the constant evolution of technologies are fundamental to maintaining and strengthening Eni's leadership in the energy transition,” states Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi.

Commenting that the company has been leveraging high performance computing over several years, he adds that it has been integrated throughout the entire business chain, transforming it into an indispensable lever for achieving net zero and creating value.

“Eni has developed a unique heritage of technological knowledge and programming that gives us a competitive advantage on the international stage and supports the speed of our transformation while simultaneously driving our growth.”

The HPC6 employs Hewlett Packard Enterprises's Cray EX4000 and Cray ClusterStor E1000 systems.

A notable feature is its implementation with a new liquid cooling system to improve the energy efficiency by dissipating almost all of the heat generated by the machine.

An Eni statement adds that the HPC6 should accelerate the development of new high-potential businesses connected with the energy transition, as well as strengthen the synergy between Eni and its satellite companies, among them Plenitude for renewables integration and Enilive for sustainable mobility and biofuel production.