[4] Professor William Bone was appointed the first head of the department and oversaw the construction of the new building on Prince Consort Road to house it.

The first four-year undergraduate degrees were established in 1980 and in 1989, Professor Roger W. H. Sargent founded the Centre for Process Systems Engineering in the department.

The £2 million Carbon Capture Pilot Plant, which opened in 2012, is housed in the department and is the most sophisticated of its kind in an academic institution in the world.

The undergraduate program at the department is a 4-year integrated course leading to an MEng degree in chemical engineering, including an option to study a year abroad.

[citation needed] All students graduating with the MEng degree also automatically receive an lllAssociateship of the City and Guilds of London Institute.