Get to know... Ana Faria

Ana Catarina Faria is a chemical engineer with a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto, currently working at Fraunhofer Portugal AWAM. Her work has been shaped by a strong interest in turning environmental challenges into meaningful solutions for industry and society, especially in areas of carbon management and resource valorization. During her PhD, she focused on combining CO₂ capture and its conversion into methane within a single system, exploring innovative reactor designs and advanced materials. Since then, she has been involved in several research and innovation projects, contributing to the development and proof-of-concept validation of new technologies for carbon utilisation, working closely across different TRLs from experimental lab setups to pilot-scale systems. 

After joining Fraunhofer Portugal AWAM, her work evolved towards the broader concept of circularity, especially in the context of waste valorisation and bioenergy, bringing together expertise from reaction engineering to environmental biotechnology. She has been working with anaerobic digestion and dark fermentation processes, exploring strategies to enhance methane production and improve the treatment and valorisation of residual streams. Her research group focuses on applied research on biogas production and upgrading, power-to-methane technology, and low-carbon energy production. She has been involved in several Portugal2030 and Horizon Europe projects and is experienced in proposal writing at both levels and in managing national projects. Since February 2024, she has been affiliated with the research center CITAB (UTAD). Ana Catarina Faria is the author/co-author of 9 (nine) research articles in international journals and several communications at national and international conferences.