they fouha were deading rapidly. so the army began to investigate why this was occurring. and one of the first things they isolated was a fungus that produced enzymes that broke down the cotton material found in the solders' uniforms. these enzymes are very unique. they are termed processive enzymes. so once they attach to a chain they move processively down, releasing the sugar as they move along. this particular enzyme is probably the single most important enzyme in biomass conversion at this time. yet we don't know how it really works. narrator: by gaining a better understanding of how these enzymes work and engineering them to function more effectively researchers at nrel will improve the biomass-conversion process even further. once the enzymes have broken down the sugar chains fermentation organisms are added to turn those sugars into ethanol. in this part of th e process, too, progress needs to be made. aden: in the current corn-ethanol industry, the yeast they use to ferment the glucose into ethanol is very good at what it does. in this process, we have a mixture o