Professor Peter J Scales

BSc (Hons) Melbourne 1981
PhD Melbourne 1988
FIChemE, MAusIMM

Professor

Email:
Telephone: (61) 3 8344 6480
Fax: (61) 3 8344 4153

Room G.21, School of Engineering

The Solid Liquid Separations Group

Current Research Activities

• Environmental Engineering
  • Water purification
  • Water and waste water processing and recycling
  • Sustainable Technologies
• Nano and Biomolecular Engineering
  • Nanostructured materials
• Materials and Minerals Engineering
  • Hydrometallurgy

The research interests of Peter Scales are in the area of particulate flow and particulate (colloidal) interfacial phenomena, electrokinetics, flocculation, compressive and shear rheology, hydrometallurgy and nanoparticle synthesis and dispersion. The industrial focus of the research is primarily in the area of thickening, filtration and centrifugation of minerals, water, waste water and other industrial sludges.

Peter leads an internationally recognised solid-liquid (sludge) separation group in the Department and is a member of the Particulate Fluids Processing Special Research Centre.

Professional Affiliations

• President, Australian Society of Rheology
• Member, Royal Society of Chemistry, Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry
• Member, Editorial Board, Colloids and Surfaces A
• Member, Editorial Board, Transactions of the Filtration Society
• Regional Editor, Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology
• Member, Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

Honours/Awards

• Faculty of Engineering, University of Melbourne , Teaching Excellence Award, 1999, 2000.
• Frederick White Prize of the Australian Academy of Science, 2000
• Shedden-UBDE Award, 1998
• Grimwade Prize in Industrial Chemistry, 1993
• Invited Researcher, Kyushu Industrial Research Institute, Tosu , Japan , 1994, 1997

Professional Experience

• Head of Department from January 2003-2006
• Team Leader, Solid-Liquid Group, Particulate Fluids Processing Centre, University of Melbourne, from 2000
• Reader, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne 1998 to 2002
• Research Fellow and Manager, Advanced Mineral Products
• Special Research Centre, University of Melbourne 1991 to 2000
• Senior Research Scientist, ICI , UK 1988 to 1991

Selected Publications

1. AD Stickland, LR White, PJ Scales, “Modeling of solid-bowl batch centrifugation of flocculated suspensions,” AIChE Journal, Vol 52(4), 1351-1362 (2006).
2. AD Stickland, RG deKretser, PJ Scales, SP Usher, P Hillis and MR Tillotson, “Numerical modelling of fixed cavity plate and frame filtration: Formulation, validation and optimisation,” Chem.Eng. Sci., 61: 3818-3829 (2006).
3. AD Stickland, RG deKretser and PJ Scales, “Nontraditional constant pressure filtration behavior,” AIChE Journal, Vol. 51, No. 9, 2481-2488 (2005).
4. DR Lester, SP Usher and PJ Scales, “Estimation of the hindered settling function R(f) from batch settling tests”, AIChE Journal, Vol 51, No. 4, 1158-1168, (2005).
5. KE Bremmell and PJ Scales, “Adhesive forces between adsorbed anionic polyelectrolyte layers in high ionic strength solutions” Colloids and Surfaces A, Vol 247, 19-25, (2004).
6. D Dixon, RJ Eldridge, NP Le and PJ Scales, “The effect of alum dose on the consolidation behaviour of coagulated clay dispersions”, Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology – AQUA, 53.8, 545-552, (2004).
7. PJ Harbour, NJ Anderson, AAA Aziz, DR Dixon, P Hillis, PJ Scales, A Stickland and M Tillotson, “Fundamental dewatering characteristics of potable water treatment sludges”, Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology, AQUA, 53.1, 29-36 (2004).
8. RG deKretser, PJ Scales and DV Boger, “Compressive rheology: An Overview”, Annual Rheology Reviews: 2003 (British Society of Rheology) (2003).
9. Z Zhou, PJ Scales and DV Boger, “Chemical and physical control of the rheology of concentrated metal oxide suspensions,” Chemical Engineering Science, 56: 2901-2920, 2001.
10. RG deKretser, SP Usher, PJ Scales, KA Landman and DV Boger, “Rapid measurement of dewatering design and optimization parameters,” AIChE J, 47: 1758-1769, 2001.

Publications List