Antonio Escamilla Perejón

I have a BEng in Energy Engineering, specialized in turbomachinery and thermal power generation, from the University of Seville. During this period, I developed a close interest in thermal power generation, and I found success in the subject of turbomachinery design. During my BEng thesis, I used MATLAB to correlate and simulate more than 30 supercritical CO2 thermodynamic cycles. The project was successful in settling the thermodynamic basis of this technology and identifying the drivers of the supercritical-CO2 Brayton cycle to boost the performance of different power generation applications, such as concentrated solar power or nuclear power. I was rewarded with the highest grade among my peers.
After completing my BEng, looking for more challenges and to further my knowledge on this field, I undertook a MSc in Thermal Power (Gas Turbine Technology option) at Cranfield University (UK). As part of the course, I participated in the Group Design Project, in which a team of 11, from different nationalities and cultures, were tasked with the design of a gas turbine engine for a Boeing 787. In this project, I took charge of the Low-Pressure Turbine aerodynamic design, for which I developed a MATLAB program to predict the 1-D design geometry and performance for any gas turbine. Along the line of my BEng thesis, my master thesis looked deeper into the aerodynamics of turbomachinery with supercritical CO2 as working fluid. It was successful to substantiate, in terms of fluid behaviour, the aerodynamic and mechanical differences between air and supercritical CO2 in an axial compressor stator blade cascade using Ansys commercial software.
Once graduated I wanted to put all the insights I had acquired into practice while continuing to grow my skill set. Hence, in February 2018, I decided to join turbomacinery design solutions company with headquarters in London, as a Turbomachinery Software Development Engineer. My main responsibility was to lead the research and development of extensive aerodynamic turbomachinery mathematical models and algorithms and their implementation in commercial software packages. This involved the use of various software languages (C++, Python, Fortran...) and the verification of models through experimental data, CFD analysis and the customer-feedback loop. Moreover, within my multi-functional role, I also participate in many other tasks to guarantee customers the best turbomachinery solutions.
From October 2020, I have accepted the position of Early Stage Researcher (PhD) at the University of Seville. I work participating within a H2020-ITN-MSCA program, “NEXTMGT” (www.nextmgt.com). Within a consortium of 7 European universities and 16 partners, I am in charge of one of the 15 projects, whose title is “Innovative energy storage concepts based on power-to-power solutions with micro-gas turbines”. The main target is to further develop the micro gas turbine technology and its interaction with non-fossil fuels, such as hydrogen.