Associate Professor Tom Rufford

Associate Professor

School of Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
t.rufford@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 54165

Overview

Biography:

Tom Rufford is an Associate Professor in the UQ School of Chemical Engineering and chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation of CO2 (GETCO2). Tom completed his BE and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2000 and 2009, respectively. Tom’s PhD thesis investigated the use of porous carbon materials derived from waste coffee grounds for energy storage via hydrogen or supercapacitors on board electric vehicles. From 2001 to 2005 he worked as a process engineer and technologist on the crude distillation columns, naptha reformers and hydrogen purification plant at Shell’s Geelong Oil Refinery. From 2010 to late 2012, Tom was a research fellow at the University of Western Australia working on natural gas processing and LNG production research projects with the UWA’s Chevron Chair in Gas Process Engineering, Prof. Eric May. He returned to UQ as a teaching and research academic in December 2012.

Dr Rufford is a chartered member of the IChemE and Engineers Australia (chemical engineering).

Dr Rufford has published more than 80 scientific papers in international journals and an edited book on carbon materials. He has been a visiting researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, and an Endeavour Research Fellow visiting the Institute of Metals Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang, China.

Research:

Associate Professor Rufford conducts research on gas processing and purification for cleaner energy production and utilization. His research interests include electrochemical processes including energy storage and CO2 reduction, natural gas process engineering, porous carbons, and solid-fluid interactions in coal seam gas reservoirs. Current and recent projects include studies on electrochemical CO2 reduction, development of gas diffusion electrode materials, helium recovery and nitrogen rejection from natural gas, low permeability coals, and the capture of methane emissions from liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plants.

Teaching and Learning:

Tom teaches into the BE and BE/ME chemical engineering programs at UQ. He's taught core chemical engineering courses such as heat and mass transfer, unit operations, and the capstone design project courses CHEE4001 and CHEE7103. In 2024 he is teaching into CHEE3004 Unit Operations in Semester 1 and CHEE7103 BE/ME Design Project in Semester 2.

Qualifications

  • Member, Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Engineering, The University of Queensland

Publications

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Supervision

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • To get a grip on their surfing boards/devices surfers around the world use and discard something like 6 million bars of surfboard wax each year. Almost all of these surfboard wax products consist of petrochemicals derived from crude oils. However, a range of new surfboard wax products including soy-based and bees wax are now available, and marketed as "green" alternatives to petrochemical waxes. But, there is very little scientific information available to verify the "green" marketing claims.

    This project aims to (1) review the literature on environmental impacts (both marine impacts of wax particles, and broader impacts of production processes), (2) identify a set of criteria to assess both the performance and relative impacts of "green" and conventional surf waxes, and (3) design and conduct experiments to understand the breakage and spalling mechanisms of surfwax in use and entry of wax particles into the marine environment.

    Note, although this project focusses on surf wax, this wax product represents just a very small fraction of the parrafin wax that enters the marine environment each year. Most parrafin pollution in our oceans comes from activities related to shipping petroleum products. The outcomes from the surfwax study may help to understand the life cycle of other waxes in the marine environment.

    Applicants to this project will need to apply for a UQ Graduate School scholarship (https://graduate-school.uq.edu.au/Scholarships) or similar funding.

    No prior experience in surfing required. However, it's essential to the PhD applicant is willing to learn how surfers use wax, become aware of trends in surf culture and surf industry, and willing to appreciate the different ways surfers relate to the ocean environment.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Wang, Li, Ge, Lei, Rufford, Thomas and Zhu, Zhonghua (2015). Functionalization of carbon nanotubes for catalytic applications. Nanotubes and nanosheets: functionalization and applications of boron nitride and other nanomaterials. (pp. 409-439) edited by Ying (Ian) Chen. Boca Raton, FL, United States: CRC Press. doi: 10.1201/b18073-20

  • Rufford, Thomas E., Fiset, Erika, Hulicova-Jurcakova, Denisa and Zhu, Zhonghua (2014). Biomass-derived carbon electrodes for electrochemical double-layer capacitors. Green Carbon Materials: Advances and Applications. (pp. 93-113) edited by Thomas E. Rufford, Denisa Hulicova-Jurcakova and John Zhu. Singapore: Pan Stanford Publishing. doi: 10.1201/b15651-5

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Master Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • To get a grip on their surfing boards/devices surfers around the world use and discard something like 6 million bars of surfboard wax each year. Almost all of these surfboard wax products consist of petrochemicals derived from crude oils. However, a range of new surfboard wax products including soy-based and bees wax are now available, and marketed as "green" alternatives to petrochemical waxes. But, there is very little scientific information available to verify the "green" marketing claims.

    This project aims to (1) review the literature on environmental impacts (both marine impacts of wax particles, and broader impacts of production processes), (2) identify a set of criteria to assess both the performance and relative impacts of "green" and conventional surf waxes, and (3) design and conduct experiments to understand the breakage and spalling mechanisms of surfwax in use and entry of wax particles into the marine environment.

    Note, although this project focusses on surf wax, this wax product represents just a very small fraction of the parrafin wax that enters the marine environment each year. Most parrafin pollution in our oceans comes from activities related to shipping petroleum products. The outcomes from the surfwax study may help to understand the life cycle of other waxes in the marine environment.

    Applicants to this project will need to apply for a UQ Graduate School scholarship (https://graduate-school.uq.edu.au/Scholarships) or similar funding.

    No prior experience in surfing required. However, it's essential to the PhD applicant is willing to learn how surfers use wax, become aware of trends in surf culture and surf industry, and willing to appreciate the different ways surfers relate to the ocean environment.