Meeting the ethanol challenge: Scientists use supercomputer to target cellulose bottleneck

Scientists used an SDSC supercomputer to help improve cellulose conversion to ethanol. Their “virtual molecules” show how the enzyme complex may change shape to straddle a broken cellulose chain, gaining a crucial foothold to digest cellulose into sugar molecules, which can then be fermented into ethanol. Image courtesy of Ross Walker and Amit Chourasia, SDSC and Michael Crowley and Mark Nimlos, NREL.