Juan Ignacio Del Valle Gamboa
Director of Operations | Ad Astra Rocket Company Costa Rica
Juan DEL VALLE is the Director of Operations for Ad Astra Rocket Company Costa Rica, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ad Astra Rocket Company (Webster, TX). He is a Mechanical Engineer with +20 years of experience in the fields of renewable energies, control engineering, software development, thermal engineering, plasma physics, project management and a strong emphasis on green hydrogen technologies and their applications. Prior to his involvement with Ad Astra, he worked as a Project Engineer for the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), as member of a team in charge of upgrading automation and control systems at Costa Rica’s largest geothermal energy complex. With Ad Astra, he has participated as a Project Manager or Senior Consultant in multiple projects for customers in Costa Rica, the United States, Colombia, Bolivia, and Lebanon, for customers including the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (RECOPE), the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), the International Development Bank (IDB), the Johnson Space Center at NASA, Celsia Energía, Cummins, Inc., and others.
Mr. Del Valle has extensive hands-on experience in the design, integration, commissioning, operation, safety engineering and maintenance of green hydrogen systems. He has served as Project Manager for Ad Astra Rocket Costa Rica in the development of the Costa Rica Hydrogen Transportation Ecosystem, Central America’s first fully-integrated hydrogen electric transportation pilot project and one of Latin America’s two active projects involving the operation of fuel-cell electric vehicles. This project has produced many relevant milestones for Costa Rica, including becoming the first research facility dedicated to green hydrogen in Central America, the operation of the first H35 hydrogen refueling station in Central America, the introduction of the first hydrogen-electric bus in Central America, and the operation of Latin America’s first H70 fast-fill hydrogen refueling station which will be inaugurated in July, 2021. In all of these projects, Mr. Del Valle has been directly involved with all aspects of project negotiation, planning, execution and evaluation.
Mr. Del Valle is a recognized regional expert in the topic of green hydrogen technologies and the development of a hydrogen economy in Latin America, and has been featured in different conferences and events as a speaker. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Costa Rica (2001), an M.Sc. degree in the same field from Delft University of Technology (2004) and completed his Ph.D. degree at the Costa Rican Institute of Technology in the field of plasma physics and material interactions (2022), having been awarded top honors at each institution. He’s a bilingual speaker of English and Spanish (native), is an advanced speaker of French, Italian, and Dutch, and has a basic command of German and Latin.
