Computational chemistry specialist Dr Anna Garden is leading a team which is using massive computing power to find a way of converting nitrate to molecular nitrogen.
Finding this ''dream catalyst'' could stop nitrate from dairy farms leaching in New Zealand waterways and solve one of the country's major pollution problems.
A catalyst is a substance which enables chemical reactions to proceed. For example, many car exhaust systems include catalytic converters which encourage some carbon monoxide to turn into less harmful carbon dioxide.
Dr Garden is one of many scientists taking advantage of improvements in the university's high speed data transfer and high capacity storage capabilities.
Her team, which received $300,000 in Marsden funding at the start of this year, sends prodigious amounts of data to Auckland to take advantage of supercomputers which are part of New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI).
Dr Garden said taking advantage of supercomputers to simulate the effect of different catalysts saved heaps of time.
''When you want to design a catalyst there are so many possible materials you could choose from.''
Rather than experimenting with each one in the lab, they quickly simulate effects on supercomputers. While the team was not transmitting as much data as some other groups, it was using a lot of computer power.
''As a group we used 500,000 hours on a supercomputer last month.''
She said improvements to the university's data transfer and storage capacity had made a ''huge difference'' to her work and she was optimistic of finding a solution.
''We are hopeful, but it's at least a decade away.''
