Integrated energy company Idemitsu Kosan Co. (Idemitsu) has expanded its partnership with Enthought, a specialist in digital transformation for science-driven companies. This move supports Idemitsu’s ambition to scale the development and production of innovative battery materials.

The expanded partnership will include new technical consulting and implementation services and continued participation in Enthought’s Materials Informatics (MI) Acceleration Program. This demonstrates Idemitsu’s commitment to accelerating research and development (R&D) through materials informatics, process informatics, and digital transformation (DX), which aligns with its goal of creating a carbon-neutral future.

Idemitsu, leading Japan’s shift from petroleum refining to energy materials, aims to commercialize solid electrolytes (SEs) for all-solid-state batteries. These batteries hold the potential to revolutionize transportation. To achieve mass production and commercialization, Idemitsu invested in digitalization and partnered with Enthought in 2023 to accelerate materials and process development.

“Enthought brings deep expertise in both materials science and digital technologies and works closely with our researchers and engineers to build scientific software solutions that solve extremely challenging problems,” said Hiroshi Mizuno, Ph.D., general manager in the Innovation Strategy Department at Idemitsu. “This expertise, combined with their highly effective Discovery and Agile development methods, has produced unparalleled software solutions at an unparalleled quality and effectiveness level. For these reasons and more, we have decided to expand our partnership with Enthought as we strive to achieve our ambitious business goals.”

Digital transformation is critical to Idemitsu’s short-term growth, targeting new customer value and a 30% increase in internal productivity. It also underpins their long-term goal of developing new advanced materials businesses and product lines for carbon neutrality. Materials informatics, combining materials science, data science, and scientific computing, is crucial in achieving these objectives.

Idemitsu’s efforts in digital transformation have been recognized with DX certification from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in 2021 and 2023.

“Appropriately applied materials informatics technologies can truly transform labs and business units, and we are now seeing that play out at Idemitsu. It has been an honor to support and help accelerate their R&D digital transformation progress over the last three years. We are grateful to have earned Idemitsu’s trust and look forward to continuing the partnership for years to come,” said Mike Heiber, Ph.D., director, Professional Services & Customer Success, Materials Informatics at Enthought. “And as someone concerned about sustainability, I am very pleased that we can apply our MI expertise to help electrify transportation and help Idemitsu reach its neutrality goals.”