You’re in your backyard firing up the barbecue, when a breeze blows in a smelly scent from somewhere. Perhaps it’s your garbage. Perhaps it’s the landfill a mile away.

Industries such as landfills, sewage management, food processing plants and agriculture regularly emit foul odors, which they often treat with odor neutralizers to help reduce the unpleasant smells. A group of Louisiana researchers, using molecular dynamics and the Comet supercomputer at UC San Diego, examined how a given mix of odor neutralizers works to counteract these smells. Their simulations indicate that different components found in odor neutralizers move about the atmosphere faster than others. This difference in speed could result in more effective management of these offensive odors.

Read the full story here (published August 1, 2022): Molecular Dynamics and SDSC’s Comet Sniff Out Insights on Odor Neutralizers

Our preliminary study shows how supercomputers and molecular dynamics techniques enable cost-effective analysis of important societal/environmental issues that impact the daily lives of ordinary people. Without access to SDSC resources, we never would have been able to perform this work.

Sylvester Tumusiime, Louisiana Public Health Institute Informatics Manager

Project Details

Institution: SCDC (San Diego Supercomputer Center)
University: University of California, San Diego
Funding Agency: The time on the Comet supercomputer was allocated through XSEDE.
Allocation Number: TG-ATM170012

The science story featured here, allocated through August 31, 2022, was enabled through Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) and supported by National Science Foundation grant number #1548562. Projects allocated September 1, 2022 and beyond are enabled by the ACCESS program, which is supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.