RT Journal Article
T1 Kinetic and stoichiometric model for the computer-aided design of protein fermentation into volatile fatty acids
A1 Regueira López, Alberte
A1 Bevilacqua, Riccardo
A1 Mauricio Iglesias, Miguel
A1 Carballa Arcos, Marta
A1 Lema Rodicio, Juan Manuel
K1 Carboxylate platform
K1 Resource recovery
K1 Reaction kinetics
K1 Biorefinery
K1 Process simulation
K1 Biochemical reaction modeling
AB Mixed culture fermentation to produce volatile fatty acids stands as a solid option for valorising protein-rich wastes, such as those from the (agro)industry. However, the current knowledge about this process is limited and there are no appropriate tools for designing the production of volatile fatty acids from proteinaceous wastes. Available models fail to reproduce how the process stoichiometry varies with substrate composition and environmental conditions. Likewise, existing kinetic parameters were not estimated in anaerobic fermentative conditions and cannot be used reliably for designing fermentation processes. Therefore, in this work, a model for the production of volatile fatty acids from proteins in mixed-culture fermentations was developed. The model incorporates a variable volatile fatty acids production stoichiometry that depends on the operational conditions and the protein. To reflect the commonly observed incomplete protein consumption in fermentative conditions, the model considers that the protein acidification process attains a thermodynamic equilibrium with its products. To calibrate the model, targeted designed fermentation experiments were carried out with casein and gelatine, which were chosen due to their different amino acid composition as well as their relevance in industrial organic wastes. The model reproduces with accuracy the experimental data on the fermentation of two proteins under different environmental conditions, which indicates that protein acidification is well described. The model developed in this work together with the proposed simulation framework proved to be an effective tool for selecting the optimal design parameters leading to highly selective and productive processes and for the early-stage design of processes valorising protein-rich wastes into chemicals
PB Elsevier
SN 1385-8947
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/23389
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/23389
LA eng
NO Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume 406, 15 February 2021, 126835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.126835
NO The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU14/05457) and project BIOCHEM (ERA-IB-2 7th call, ERA-IB-16-052) funded by MINECO (PCIN 2016-102). The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group ED431C2017/029 and to the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (ED431E 2018/01), both programmes are co-funded by ERDF (EU)
DS Minerva
RD 29 abr 2026