Supercomputer shows how enzymes might 'dance' and rip apart cellulose used for biofuels
January 22 2009 / by Garry Golden
Category: Energy Year: 2018 Rating: 3
Corn is not the future of biofuels. It is a political distraction, and researchers are moving beyond crops for fuel.
We are moving quickly into an era of next generation biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol derived from waste materials, and algae fuels derived from carbon emission feedstocks.
Cellulosic ethanol is a particular challenge given the slow rate of speed associated with the breaking down sugar-rich materials (e.g. agricultural waste like corn cobs). To develop faster, lower cost systems we must first understand how these proteins (enzymes called cellulases) do their magic of breaking down complex cellulose bonds into simple pieces of sugar.
Supercomputers open up new knowledge
Researchers at the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC) are creating virtual molecules that might mimic how enyzmes 'dance' above a cellulose chain before it rips up a single sugar molecule feeding it into its 'molecular conveyor belt' to 'unzip' the bonds into basic sugars that can be fermented into a liquid fuel.
Why supercomputers? Few things in the world are as complicated as understanding the shape and movement (folding) of proteins, or the breaking down of strong cellulose walls. Supercomputer simulations help us decode the secrets of molecular movement!
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Press Release
Image courtesy of National Science Foundation
Companies to watch:
Mascoma, Iogen, Verenium, Bluefire Ethanol Fuels, Pacific Ethanol, Novozyme, RangeFuels, Ceres, Coskata
Comment Thread (2 Responses)
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Another powerful example of the quantification of everything!
Posted by: Alvis Brigis January 22, 2009
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Alvis Yep… and then the twist (argued by folks like Craig Venter and Kurzweil) is reversing the process. Digitize biology, then rebuild using that digital information.
Definitely a challenging step given physical nature of things of genes and proteins… but if you crack that code, nature does the rest via self assembly.
I’m very bullish about the future of the Digital Bio / Synthetic Bio field… G-
Posted by: Garry Golden January 23, 2009
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