Pahola Thathiana Benavides

Dr. Benavides studies the energy and environmental effects of conversion technologies used to produce fuels and chemicals from, fossil-based, bio-based and waste feedstocks, including waste plastic conversion to fuels and products. She has also studied catalyst production, their impact on the life cycle of biofuels, and the fate of catalyst waste materials from catalyst production and use. She has been studying bio-based plastic production pathways to quantify the life cycle GHG emissions and fossil fuel consumption of bioplastics, considering end-of-life (EOL) tradeoffs between biodegradability and carbon sequestration. Dr. Benavides’ work is used to update and enhance Argonne’s Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) model.