Moeve has launched a pilot program for dual internships incorporating students from the Master’s in Petrochemistry and Hydrogen Technologies at the Higher Technical School of Engineering of Algeciras (ETSIA), University of Cádiz (UCA), at its San Roque Energy Park. The initiative, presented on March 30, connects the first cohort of this university degree with the energy company’s industrial complex in the Campo de Gibraltar and represents one of the first dual format experiences applied to a university degree in the field of hydrogen.
Students have participated in a training stay of approximately three months in the Optimization and Programming area of the San Roque park. During this period, they have trained in processes linked to improving operational efficiency and decision-making, as well as in initiatives related to the Positive Motion strategy, the 2030 plan with which Moeve articulates its transition towards green molecules, second-generation biofuels, and sustainable chemicals.
According to Paco Trujillo, the coordinator of the degree, the origin of the master’s program lies in an internal call from the rectorate of UCA almost three years ago to present innovative degrees. “We were looking at degrees, especially by the mirror we had here, which was the Andalusian Valley of Hydrogen. So I said: now is the time, let’s get ahead of this,” he pointed out. The memory of the new degree was first approved by the promoting department and later, unanimously, by the Government Council and the Social Council of the university. Trujillo indicated that it was “a very important opportunity, firstly, from the point of view of the university, to lead this type of studies.”
The program is born with a double uniqueness. On one hand, it is the only master’s program of its kind in the Andalusian university system. On the other, its name — in plural, “Hydrogen Technologies” — responds to an approach that differs from other national proposals. “We are going to study the petrochemistry we have here and we are going to connect it with hydrogen and we are going to see how hydrogen can be replaced by another green hydrogen,” Trujillo pointed out. The coordinator has positioned the degree as a dual training experiment at a university scale backed by the rector, aiming to place UCA “among leading universities.”
The academic structure combines a first semester of lectures in university classrooms and a complete second semester in the company, with a workload of about 375 hours. The master’s thesis is also developed in the industrial environment, which has required the mobilization of university professors and business tutors who contribute their knowledge to the development of the projects. The first cohort will defend their projects between July and September. Trujillo acknowledged the efforts associated with the launch: “Being the first cohort, with the inconveniences that always come with first cohorts, I was one of them, it is very challenging. But I am very proud to have been part of this project.” The coordinator added that the discipline requires a permanent update of the faculty, in contrast to more established areas. “Here, the knowledge is not like that of a mechanical engineering which is very established. Here we have to be at the cutting edge of everything that is being produced, scientifically,” he pointed out.
From the business side, José Luis Recio, a member of the Strategic Projects department within Moeve’s Operational Excellence area and tutor of one of the students, defended the model as a way to connect academic training with industrial reality. “Speaking as a former student of UCA, I would have loved for these types of master’s degrees to have been offered back then, because it connects academic training with industrial reality,” he noted. The students, as he described, integrate into real teams linked to projects for the use of green hydrogen, energy efficiency, and technical management, with a day-to-day equivalent to that of any junior engineer in the complex.
Recio pointed out that the experience at the park allows the development of skills that are difficult to reproduce in an academic environment: a global view of the industrial environment, real-time decision-making, a culture of safety, and teamwork in multidisciplinary teams with technical and operational conditions. In his sector analysis, he defined green hydrogen as a “key factor in the decarbonization of industry and energy transition,” a strategic technology that, in his opinion, will condition and transform processes within the refining, chemical, and transport sectors. To address that transition, the sector will need, he added, professionals with very good academic training, a solid technical foundation, and capacity for adaptation, innovation, and proactivity, in profiles equivalent to those currently studying the master’s program.
Moeve has valued that collaboration with the School of Engineering brings students closer to the real challenges of the energy industry and allows sharing the company’s experience with a generation of young people with solid technical backgrounds and motivation to contribute to the energy transition. During their stay, according to the company, students have been able to apply their knowledge in a complex industrial environment and develop key competencies for their professional future. The company understands that the value of the educational model lies in the combination of academic learning and direct practice, with the goal of preparing the talent that will lead the energy of tomorrow.
The experience translates, on the ground, into the projects that the students themselves are developing in San Roque. Rachel Hojas, a student from Cuba, explained that her master’s thesis addresses the decarbonization of the internal Fuel Gas network through the introduction of green hydrogen, aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions. The student pointed out the double impact, economic and environmental, associated with those emissions, given that the larger the volume, the greater the consequences for the company. “I have seen how to bring what I have learned in class, the theory, applied to what really works. And by going through different departments, I have seen all the work that is done in the day-to-day in the industry, which I was not aware of until now,” she described. Her decision to pursue the degree, she specified, was driven by an interest in a topic that is barely present industrially in her home country, in addition to the opportunity to experience Spanish culture.
Javier Mota, also a student from the first cohort, previously earned his degree at UCA and oriented his specialization towards the energy transition. His master’s thesis focuses on coprocessing in a hydroprocessing unit, meaning the joint treatment of fossil flows and vegetable oils to produce renewable diesel, a pathway that connects with the current demand to incorporate a green component into fuels. “There are a lot of concepts you learn in class that you don’t fully understand because you’re not seeing them. And when you get to the industry and see how things are really done and see all the points of view, you learn a lot and you complement everything much more,” he summarized. Mota has encouraged other students to choose this specialty, considering that there are jobs that require the skills acquired in the master’s program, and he indicated that the training will be even more useful in the coming years.
The collaboration coincides with a phase of transformation in the energy sector, where the transition towards more sustainable models, hydrogen as an energy vector, and the digitalization of processes are generating an increasing demand for highly qualified profiles. Trujillo has positioned Moeve at the forefront of the Andalusian Valley of Hydrogen and pointed out the investment volumes the company mobilizes in this area, in a context where, he added, the pillars of the transition are already established. Employability, the coordinator pointed out, is the primary goal of the degree, conceived as a training that evolves at the same pace as the technology itself and whose projection he understands to be beneficial for both current students and future generations of professionals in the sector.
