Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals

Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals ASCR, v.v.i.
(ICPF ASCR, v.v.i.)

ICPF AS CR main building
Director	Ing. Miroslav Punčochář, DSc.
Address	ICPF AS CR, v.v.i. Rozvojová 135 165 02 Praha 6 Czech Republic
Website	ICPF ASCR

Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i. is one of the six institutes belonging to the ASCR chemical sciences section and is a research centre in a variety of fields such as chemistry, biochemistry, catalysis and environment.

Its research topics include multiphase reaction systems for the design of chemical synthesis chemical processes and new materials development, energetics and protection of environment. Its national and international reputation is ascertained by its participation in EU financed research projects, such as EUCAARI or MULTIPRO. The MATINOES project was evaluated to belong to 20 best projects of the 6th Frame Programme.

The institute was founded at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1960 and, from its beginning, was intended to be a multidisciplinary research institution.

Its founder and first director, Professor Vladimír Bažant, was a chemical technologist with a broad perspective who valued modern concepts without which development of new processes would not be possible. This led him to invite Professor George L. Standart, a chemical engineer and a US native, who paved the way for the development of chemical engineering in the former Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 60s. Chemical engineering research could not be done without a solid base in physical chemistry. This field of research was brought into the institute by the arrival in 1964 of Professor Eduard Hála and his team of physical chemists to the newly built site in the Prague suburban area of Suchdol-Lysolaje.

Gradually new branches of chemical engineering and chemical technology research were being developed such as reaction engineering, homogeneous catalysis, studies of Non-Newtonian fluids, sublimation, separation processes, dynamics and control of chemical systems etc. Most of these new topics were introduced as necessary support to a large and long-term project of development of a complete production technology of terephthalic acid a polyesters.