Bevilacqua, RiccardoRegueira López, AlberteMauricio Iglesias, MiguelLema Rodicio, Juan ManuelCarballa Arcos, Marta2022-03-142022-03-142021Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 9 (2021) 105934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2021.105934http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27647This investigation studies the impact of trace elements supplementation on protein anaerobic conversion into volatile fatty acids (VFAs). Two continuous reactors were operated with two model substrates, casein and gelatin, at acid (pH 5) and neutral (pH 7) conditions, with the addition of macro and micronutrients. Micronutrients increased the acidification degree of both proteins from 40% to 50% to more than 60% only at pH 7, which was consistent with a greater amino acid consumption at neutral conditions. Furthermore, trace elements modified the process selectivity, promoting valeric acids production and other variations dependant on protein composition. Isomerisation and chain elongation processes were identified as a consequence of the observed deviations between amino acid consumption and VFA production. Overall, this study demonstrated that the supplementation of micronutrients can be useful to enhance and steer the anaerobic fermentation of protein-rich streamseng© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Amino acid degradationBiorefineryCarboxylate platformMicronutrientsMixed-culture fermentationjournal article10.1016/j.jece.2021.1059342213-3437open access