Sandra Esteves

Prof. Sandra Esteves is a Professor in Bioprocess Technology for Resource Recovery (Energy and Materials), directs the Wales Centre of Excellence for Anaerobic Digestion and has over 20 years’ experience in biotechnology research, development and full-scale deployment of anaerobic processes. Sandra earned a first class BSc (Hons) degree in Energy & Environmental Technology from the University of Glamorgan in 1996. Sandra read her PhD in 2002 from the University of Glamorgan (now University of South Wales) on the control of biotechnology processes using artificial intelligence techniques. Sandra has directed and co-investigated ~£12M of R&D projects. Her research has been funded by the EU, Innovate UK, BEIS and Research Councils as well as through private sector funding including TATA Steel, Wales & West Utilities, Welsh Water, Severn Trent, WRAP, Veolia and ARUP. Sandra is a member of the European Biogas Association’ Scientific Advisory Council, Member of the Internationl Advisory Group for the Swedish Biogas Research Centre & supports AD deployment internationally. She has provided technical services and R&D collaboration to over 200 companies and informs government on policy. Sandra’s research has focused in the areas of waste and wastewater recovery, in particular organics as well as C1 (CO2, CO and CH4) gases, bioprocess conversions design, monitoring, modelling and control, the production of novel anaerobic and aerobic processes and products, microbial ecology, profiling and enrichment and the evaluation of metabolic performance of microbial cultures for the production of energy gases, chemicals and biopolymers. She has successfully supervised 10 PhD graduates (and over 50 MSc Students), managed/mentored 15 post-doctoral fellows and is currently supervising 7 PhD students. Sandra is the co-inventor of 2 patents, 5 trademarks in addition to over 70 scientific publications with an h-index of 24. The impact of her work has been felt within academic and industrial sectors.