Gexcon UK welcomes new energy transition technical lead

Gexcon UK has welcomed Dr Karina Almeida Leñero as Energy Transition Technical Lead & Business Development Manager to support its continued growth plans.

Karina will focus on helping companies entering the alternative energy value chain, from hydrogen production, transportation, storage, CCS, biogas and other bio-derived energy sources.

She is also looking forward to working with customers wishing to transition from fossil to alternative fuels, through to research and development and demonstration projects.

With a strong scientific background and broad knowledge of process safety, Karina has worked with leading organisations and contributed research papers and presentations to the field of chemistry and process safety.

She has held positions as Senior Safety Design Engineer and Process Safety Technical Lead with TGE Gas Engineering and spent 14 years with Shell Global Solutions where she progressed from Research Chemist to Technical Safety Engineer.

Karina said:

“What attracted me to Gexcon was its involvement with hydrogen projects and renewables, which is something I have wanted to revisit from my background with biofuels and energy efficiency.

”The oil and gas industry has learned process safety the hard way after many serious accidents costing many lives, injuries and environmental damage. We cannot afford for the same to happen with alternative energies. It is imperative that lessons learnt in other industries are applied.

“This is where Gexcon can have an impact, using its expertise and knowledge to ensure an appropriate process safety methodology is applied to all emerging energy technologies.”

Karina, originally from Mexico, holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Amsterdam which has enabled her to apply knowledge to the development of energy-efficient processes including the extraction of second generation biofuels from marine algae.

Karina is also experienced in hazard identification, consequence modelling, dust explosions, functional safety as well as risk assessment and mitigation.

Outside of work, Karina has two boys and enjoys spending time with her family hiking around the Welsh mountains, cycling, and has recently found a new joy in inline skating.