Research Focus
Dr. Pahola Thathiana Benavides has a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operation Research from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from National University of Colombia. Currently, Dr. Benavides is working at Argonne National Laboratory in the Systems Assessment group. At Argonne, Dr. Benavides investigates the energy and environmental effects (Life-Cycle Analysis) of thermochemical and biochemical conversion processes that produce fuels, bio-derived fuels, and bio-based chemicals. She has also worked on the production of catalysts and impact on the life-cycle of biofuels, the fate of catalyst waste materials—both from catalyst production processes and catalyst-using processes. Dr. Benavides has been collaborating with other national laboratories on relevant projects supported by the US Department of Energy such as evaluation of bioproducts through the Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC), Agile Biofoundry, and Co-Optimization of Fuels and Engines (Co-Optima). Dr. Benavides’ work has been incorporated into Argonne’s Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model.
Projects in the Agile BioFoundry
- Co-Lead of Integrated Analysis Team
- Life-cycle and sustainability analysis for biofuels and bioproducts
Featured Publications
Benavides, P.T., Dunn, J., Han, J., Biddy, M., Markham, J. 2018 “Exploring Comparative Energy and Environmental Benefits of Virgin, Recycled and Bio-derived PET Bottles. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng 6 (8), 9725–9733. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b00750
Hao, C., Markham, J., Jones, S., Benavides, P.T., Dunn, J., Biddy, M., Tao, L., Lamers, P., Phillips 2018. “Techno-Economic Analysis and Life-Cycle Analysis of Two Light-Duty Bioblendstocks: Isobutanol and Aromatic-Rich Hydrocarbons”. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b01152
Dunn, J., Biddy, M., Jones, S., Cai, H., Benavides, P.T., Markham, J., Tao, J., Tan, E., Kinchin, C., Davis, R., Dutta, A., Bearden, M., Clayton, C., Phillips, S., Rappe, K., Lamers, P. 2018. “Environmental, economic, and scalability considerations and trends of selected fuel economy-enhancing biomass-derived blendstocks” ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 6: 561–569. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b02871
Benavides, P. T., P. Sun, J. Han, J. B. Dunn, and M. Wang. 2017. “Life-cycle Analysis of Fuels from Post-use Non-recycled Plastics.” Fuel Journal 203:11-22.
Benavides, P. T., Cronauer, F. Adom, Z. Wang, and J. B. Dunn. 2017. “The Influence of Catalysts on Biofuel Life Cycle Analysis (LCA).” Sustainable Materials and Technologies 11:53-59.