Paola Alejandra Saenz Cavazos

Paola Alejandra Saenz Cavazos is a Visiting Researcher and postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, affiliated with the Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Solutions. She collaborates with Prof. Nilay Shah's research group, focusing on Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) and their regulatory/commercial drivers. Her work bridges nature-based and engineered Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) methods like blue carbon and Direct Air Capture (DAC), alongside CCUS techniques such as carbon mineralization and Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs).

Education: PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London (supervised by Prof. Daryl R. Williams), focusing on solid sorbents for CCUS under real-world conditions. Developed experimental frameworks and characterization techniques for scaling porous materials in gas adsorption applications.

Research emphasizes technical performance, environmental impact, techno-economic analysis, and geo-social considerations of decarbonization technologies. Previously, she advised industries (energy, oil/gas, cement, mining, Waste-to-Energy) on net-zero strategies through her consultancy work, helping navigate decarbonisation complexities.

Labs/Teams: Active in the Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Solutions, contributing to interdisciplinary decarbonisation initiatives.