Biography:

Léonard Lefranc holds a Master in General Engineering (2022) from the École Centrale Paris (Paris, France), a French grande école offering a comprehensive syllabus combining Mathematics, Engineering, Economics and Humanities. He also holds a Master in Industrial Engineering (2022) and a Master in Business Administration (2022), respectively from the Engineering School (ICAI) and the Business School (ICADE) of the Comillas Pontificial University (Madrid, Spain) as a result of the international double degree program of this university with the École Centrale Paris.

After a year working on renewables and industrial projects in the Spanish engineering consultancy Ayesa, he joined in 2023 the Institute for Research in Technology (IIT) of the Comillas Pontificial University as a Research Assistant and PhD candidate focusing on modelling the transition of the industry to a decarbonised future. He also collaborates with the Rafael Mariño New Energy Technologies Department and the Fundación Repsol Energy Transition Department of ICAI in developing life cycle assessment studies of energy- and emission-intensive industries (e.g., the Spanish cement sector), and assessing the techno-economic viability of new decarbonising energy solutions in line with the circular economy principles. One such solution is the novel concept of “golden hydrogen”.

Following his 2022 study on the techno-economic viability of golden hydrogen as a decarbonisation solution for the residential and the public transport sectors in mainland Spain, he received the award for best Master’s Thesis in Decarbonisation and Circular Economy of ICAI’s Master in Industrial Engineering.