History of the Department in Dates
| 1951-1953 | Cabinet of Chemical and Food Machinery |
| 1952 | First graduates in the field |
| 1953-1961 | Department of Chemical and Food Machinery |
| 1961 | Department of Chemical and Food Machinery (moved to Horska Street) |
| 1965 | Department of Chemical and Food Machinery (moved to Dejvice) |
| 1970 | division to Department of Chemical Machinery and Department of Food Machinery |
| 1974 | both departments joined to Department of Chemical and Food Machinery |
| 1987 | Department of Machinery for Chemical, Food and Process Indutries |
| 1998 | Department of Process Engineering |
Historical Development of the Department
The field of process engineering has evolved over the past years from the specialization of “chemical and food machinery”. Teaching in this specialization began on October 1, 1951 for twenty students. The first permanent employee of the Department was Ing. Frantisek Michalicka and heads of the Department were external workers namely Ing. Dr. Techn. Jan Zvonícek (food processing machines) and Ing. Dr. Techn. Rudolf Dohnalek (chemical machines). After a year of teaching, the other assistants became, namely Ing. Miroslav Pasek and Ing. Zbynek Oktabec. Ing. Dr. Techn. Jan Zvonicek was duly appointed associate professor in 1953, and external technical director of Spolana Neratovice, Ing. Dr.techn. Zdeněk Milbauer started lecture at newly estabilished Department of Chemical and Food Machinery. The Department was initially included as part of the Department of Heating and Ventilation, Chemical and Food Machinery under the leadership of prof. Ing. Dr. Techn. Jan Pulkrabek. After a ten-year work in the rooms of a detached workplace in Prague 2 Na Vytoni, a separate Department of Chemical and Food Machinery was established in 1963 under the supervision of assoc. prof. Ing. Jiri Dohnal, who became shortly the first regular professor of this field at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in the Czechoslovakia. During this period the Department was moved to new rooms and laboratories in the CTU Rector building in Prague 2, Horska Street. After completing the new Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Prague Dejvice, the Department moved to a new building in the Technical University in Prague in the spring of 1965, where the department gained extensive space for research in hall laboratories. Nevertheless, education of chemistry remained in Horska till until 2009, when the laboratories were moved to Dejvice and the whole institute was concentrated in Dejvice. Between 1970 and 1974, the department was divided into two separate departments, the Department of Chemical Machinery and the Department of Food Machinery under the leadership of prof. Ing. Jiri Dohnal and prof. Ing. Dr. Techn. Jan Zvonicek. The department was joined after four years because of economic reasons and prof. Ing. Jiri Dohnal was appointed head of the department. Since October 1981, the department has been led by assoc. prof. Ing. Pavel Ditl, CSc, who was appointed professor in 1986. Assoc. prof. Ing. František Rieger, DrSc and Assoc. prof. Ing. Jiri Sestak, DrSc. were appointed professor in 1986. In 1990, the department was led by assoc. prof. Ing. Frantisek Sigl, CSc, and from 1994 to 1998 was the head of the department assoc. prof. Ing. Rudolf Zitny, CSc. In 2009, on the basis of bankruptcy, prof. Ing. Tomáš Jirout, Ph.D. was appointed head of the Department, who directs the Department to this day.
Heads of the Department – an overview
| Year | Head of the Department | Place of employment | Adress |
| 1953-1961 | Ing. Dr. Rudolf Dohnálek (chemical machinery) Ing. Dr. Jan Zvoníček (food machinery) |
Department of chemical and food machinery | Na Výtoni 10, Prague 2 Lidická 6, Prague 5 (laboratories) |
| 1961-1970 | prof. Ing. Jiří Dohnal | Department of chemical and food machinery | Horská 4, Prague 2 |
| 1970-1974 | prof. Ing. Jiří Dohnal | Department of chemical machinery | Technická 4, Prague 6 Horská 4, Prague 2 (laboratories) |
| 1970-1974 | prof. Ing. Dr. Jan Zvoníček | Department of food machinery | |
| 1974-1981 | prof. Ing. Jiří Dohnal | Department of chemical and food machinery | |
| 1981-1990 | prof. Ing. Pavel Ditl, DrSc. | Department of machines and apparatusses for chemical, food and process industries (from 1987) | |
| 1990-1994 | doc. Ing. František Sigl, CSc. | ||
| 1994-1998 | doc. Ing. Rudlolf Žitný, CSc. | ||
| 1998-2009 | prof. Ing. František Rieger, DrSc. | Department of Process Engineering | Technická 4, Prague 6 |
| from 2009 | prof. Ing. Tomáš Jirout, Ph.D. | Department of Process Engineering | Technická 4, Prague 6 |
Historical development of education, science and research
The curriculum of the field of study includes nowadays subjects necessary for the independent creative work of a mechanical engineer practically in any area of designing machines in the branch of Process Engineering. From 1969/70 Transfer Phenomena has begun lectured, that integrates knowledge from momentum, heat and mass transfer fundamentals. Experimental education of students was provided firstly in the laboratories adapted to the premises taken over from the Ministery of the Interior in Lidická street, that were put into operation in 1956. Since the date of dislocation of the Department to the building in Horska Street, where it was possible to enrich the classes of chemistry for the 1st year of engineering by laboratory exercises, a number of pilot plants, which were produced mostly in the contractual plants of our field and which were installed in the hall laboratories in Dejvice campus, were designed. R&D activities were during the early years, focused on the research of the evaporation process, especially in the new and modern types of rotary, thin-film evaporation apparatuses. The first scientific publications of the Department’s staff come from this area as well. Particularly in connection with the possibility of reliable calculation of heat exchangers, a laboratory is started to measure the thermophysical parameters, enabling the measurement of density, specific thermal capacity, thermal conductivity and viscosity respectively, rheological material parameters, viscous or very viscous liquids. The construction of apparatuses for measuring the power, homogenization and suspending effects of mechanical agitators, and later also devices for mixing and mixing in static mixers. As one of the first workplaces in Czechoslovakia, the experimental and theoretical study of flow and pressure bonding in the flow of non-Newtonian fluids in machines and apparatuses together with the study of convective heat transfer in the flow of anomalous liquids. The establishment of the Center of Food Technology and Technologies enabled the creation of modern workplaces for the study of unconventional methods of heating (direct ohmic and microwave heating). Experimental techniques of process research and diagnostics are being developed, eg the use of radioindicators to determine the time delay distribution (RTD) and flow visualization.