I am a multidisciplinary researcher in the field of sustainability assessment of energy (storage) systems. Graduated as engineer (Dipl. Ing. at Technical University of Munich), I have been working as R&D engineer in the automotive industry, studied a Master in Fuel cells and renewable energy (CSIC, Madrid), and did my dissertation in Chemical and environmental Engineering at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid) about the environmental, economic and thermodynamic assessment of pyrolysis processes for the production of biofuels and biochar. I have been working as postdoc in the research group ‘Resources, Recycling, Environment & Sustainability’ at Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), modelling and assessing novel electrochemical energy storage technologies, with a special focus on material issues, sustainability and recycling of new battery systems. Granted an MSCA Fellowship, I changed to University of Alcalá (Madrid), department of economics, working on policy analysis of low carbon transition pathways. Currently, I am associate professor at University of Alcalá, teaching economics and industrial ecology for chemistry, and working on policy assessment and sustainability assessment of energy systems. In parallel, I am developing the carbon footprint rules for batteries for the JRC of the European Commission.

Research interests

My principal research interests are related with sustainability assessment of emerging technologies. I have been (and keep on) working on the assessment of energy storage systems, especially batteries, with a focus on recycling and circularity aspects. However, I am also much interested in policy assessment and societal aspects of sustainability (particularly urbanism and transport), given the fact that technology alone is insufficient to bring our economic metabolism back to sustainable levels of consumptions.