Lignocellulosic materials represent a large and inexpensive resource because they cannot be digested and therefore do not compete as food. However, their inability do be digested makes them difficult to convert to fermentable sugars. Indeed, the fermentation of sugars derived from lignocellulosic matter has proven to be more of a process design and operating challenge than traditional sugar or starch-based processes. The bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol is a complicated series of strongly interdependent process steps. In the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to obtain water-soluble sugars, the enzyme source is the aqueous culture mass obtained in an enzyme preparation step by cultivating an aqueous nutrient medium in the presence of a cellulosic material. A cellulolytic microorganism is capable of elaborating a cellulolytic enzyme complex which can degrade native cellulose. No separation is made of any component of the culture mass. Such use of the culture mass as the enzyme source not only eliminates processing steps to separate the enzyme, but also results in increased hydrolysis rates and yields of the desired water-soluble sugars in the hydrolysis of cellulose