About Sofia Esquivel Elizondo, Low-Carbon Energy Scientist

Sofia Esquivel Elizondo

Low-Carbon Energy Scientist

Contact

Europe Office

Work

Areas of expertise:

Alternative fuels (e-fuels or electrofuels, biofuels, hydrogen, ammonia), hydrogen emissions, ammonia emissions, fermentation, anaerobic digestion

Dr. Sofia Esquivel is an environmental scientist currently focusing on alternative fuels and their climate, environmental and social impacts. Her research evaluates alternative fuel options and their various production pathways to assess opportunities, challenges and associated risks.

Background

During her scientific career, Dr. Sofia Esquivel has conducted research to improve the production of various biofuels and commodity chemicals. Her graduate and postdoctoral research involved studying the production of biohydrogen, biomethane, bio-alcohols and bio-oils (biodiesel precursors) from wastes, such as syngas (a waste gasification product), off-gases and organic residues like manure and sewage sludge. During her research, she discovered and named two biofuel-producing microbes.

Since joining EDF Europe in 2022, Sofia has been studying various alternative fuels, like low-carbon hydrogen, ammonia and methanol, with a policy-oriented focus.

Education:

B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) in Mexico.

M.S. in Bioprocesses from Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) in Mexico.

Ph.D. in Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering from Arizona State University (ASU) in the USA.

Publications

Esquivel-Elizondo, S.*, Walkowiak, B.*, Sartzetakis S., Buma, B. The climate impact of direct and indirect N2O emissions from the ammonia marine fuel value chain. Environmental Science & Technology. 
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c13135

Martin, P., Ocko, I.B., Esquivel-Elizondo S., Kupers, R., Cebon, D., Baxter, T., Hamburg, S.P. 2024. A review of challenges with using the natural gas system for hydrogen. Energy Science & Engineering, 12(10), p.3995-4009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.1861

Esquivel-Elizondo, S., Hormaza Mejia, A., Sun, T., Shrestha, E., Hamburg, S. and Ocko, I., 2023. Wide range in estimates of hydrogen emissions from infrastructure. Frontiers in Energy Research, 11, p.1207208.

Casini, I., McCubbin, T., Esquivel-Elizondo, S., Luque, G.G., Evseeva, D., Fink, C., Beblawy, S., Youngblut, N.D., Aristilde, L., Huson, D. and Drager, A., 2022. An integrated systems-biology platform for power-to-gas technology. bioRxiv, pp.2022-12.

Esquivel-Elizondo, S., Delgado, A.G., Rittmann, B.E. and Krajmalnik-Brown, R., 2017. The effects of CO2 and H2 on CO metabolism by pure and mixed microbial cultures. Biotechnology for biofuels, 10(1), pp.1-13.

Esquivel-Elizondo, S., Ilhan, Z.E., Garcia-Peña, E.I. and Krajmalnik-Brown, R., 2017. Insights into butyrate production in a controlled fermentation system via gene predictions. MSystems, 2(4), pp.10-1128.

Esquivel-Elizondo, S., Parameswaran, P., Delgado, A.G., Maldonado, J., Rittmann, B.E. and Krajmalnik-Brown, R., 2016. Archaea and bacteria acclimate to high total ammonia in a methanogenic reactor treating swine waste. Archaea, 2016.

Esquivel-Elizondo, S., Chairez, I., Salgado, E., Aranda, J.S., Baquerizo, G. and Garcia-Peña, E.I., 2014. Controlled continuous bio-hydrogen production using different biogas release strategies. Applied biochemistry and biotechnology, 173, pp.1737-1751.