Alessandro Checchi: Developing the new Green Fuels sector is a big part of the attraction of working at NIRAS

Alessandro Checchi is a 32 year-old Italian process engineer who joined NIRAS in May 2023. Originally he is from Veneto a region in northern part of Italy,  where he also took both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Materials Engineering at the renowned University of Padova, one of the oldest in the world.

However, in 2016 he decided to try his luck in Denmark, due to the reputation of The Technical University of Denmark, DTU.

“After I had studied at Padova University in Italy, I moved to Denmark to do my in PhD in Mechanical Engineering at DTU. And I have been living here ever since, so that makes it nearly seven years in Denmark for me by now,” he explains.

Good culture and work-life balance at NIRAS

After having finished his PhD, Alessandro started working at the company Resolvent that specializes in multiphysical simulation and data analysis software. Here he honed his skills within themes such as fuel cells and electrolizers stack, product optimization, process equipment modelling and design, and Power-to-X systems. But he would like to try his skills in a bigger context.

“I was basically looking for a job in a company of a certain size with more disciplines and a broader scope and field of knowledge. When I saw a job add for NIRAS, it sounded like the right professional challenge for me. I also read lot of good things about the culture and work-life balance at NIRAS, so it seems like the perfect fit for me,” says Alessandro.

GREENsition was part of the attraction

Alessandro forms part of NIRAS’s newly initiated, but highly ambitious Green Fuels department, and the thought of being able to help shape a new entity into something more substantial was also a major draw.

“I am working with renewables, mainly hydrogen and electrolyzers, but also electrofuels and biofuels. While I mainly work on Green Fuels projects, I also draw on my experiences to support the pharma, life science and food and beverage sectors. I think it is fascinating to be able to help develop a whole new department within the company. NIRAS is investing a lot in developing solutions for the green energy transition – or GREENsition, as we call it here,” he says.

NIRAS offers start-up energy in a large company

Even though NIRAS is a large and well established engineering consultancy, , Alessandro still feels that there is a lot of entrepreneurial spirit and go-getting mentality in the Green Fuels department at NIRAS:

“Working with Green Fuels in NIRAS is a bit like working in a start-up company. There is a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and you get the opportunity to influence the work and the direction of the business line. On the other hand, you get all the benefits of being part of big, solid company with an amazing amount of knowledge and capacity that you can draw upon. So it is really the best of two worlds.”