中国科学院过程工程研究所（原化工冶金研究所）成立于1958年10月1日。建所之初，针对国家战略需求，以化工原理和技术强化冶金过程，创立了高压炉顶、高风温、高鼓风湿度的“三高理论”，使铁产量翻番；开拓了氧气转炉炼钢技术，作为项目负责单位与石景山钢铁公司等单位合作，建立了新中国第一座连续生产的工业化转炉炼钢厂，使炼钢效率提高二十余倍；针对国家急需开发的攀枝花钒钛磁铁矿、包头稀土铁矿及金川硫化镍矿，研究钒、钛、稀土、钴、镍等元素的分离提取新方法，为我国钢铁工业和有色金属工业发展做出了重要贡献。
70年代，在郭慕孙先生和陈家镛先生带领下，拓展了化工原理在资源与环境、能源和材料制备等领域中的应用，80年代推动了化学工程与生物技术的交叉，90年代强化了工程化学研究。跨入21世纪，研究所在国内率先开创了过程工程领域，以时空多尺度结构为核心布局四个层次的系统研究，奠定了过程工程的学科发展基础。经中央编制委员会批准，于2001年正式更名为过程工程研究所，实现了从“化工冶金创所”到“过程工程强所”的历史性跨越。近十年来，面向过程工业绿色化、智能化、高端化的重大战略需求，致力构建从基础到应用的科教产融通发展新模式，于2019年联合院内外相关优势科研力量，牵头创建了中国科学院绿色过程制造创新研究院，围绕国家“双碳”目标，以介科学为核心，在低碳能源、战略资源、绿色化工、高端材料、生物医药领域，开展战略性、先导性、前瞻性技术攻关及共性基础研究，支撑国家战略需求，引领新兴产业发展。
The Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (formerly the Institute of Chemical Metallurgy) was founded on October 1, 1958. At the beginning of the institute, according to the national strategic needs, with chemical principles and technology to strengthen the metallurgical process, the establishment of high pressure furnace top, high air temperature, high air humidity "three high theory", to double the iron output; Developed the oxygen converter steelmaking technology, as the project responsible unit with Shijingshan Iron and Steel Company and other units to establish the new China's first continuous production of industrial converter steelmaking, making the efficiency of more than 20 times; Aiming at Panzhihua vanadium titanium magnetite, Baotou rare-earth iron ore and Jinchuan nickel sulfide ore, which are in urgent need of development by the state, a new method for the separation and extraction of vanadium, titanium, rare earth, cobalt, nickel and other elements has been studied, which has made an important contribution to the development of iron and steel industry and non-ferrous metal industry.
In the 1970s, under the leadership of Mr. Guo Musun and Mr. Chen Ka-yong, China expanded the application of chemical principles in the fields of resources and environment, energy and material preparation, promoted the intersection of chemical engineering and biotechnology in the 1980s, and intensified the research of engineering chemistry in the 1990s. In the 21st century, the Institute pioneered the field of process engineering in China, and laid the foundation for the development of the process engineering discipline by focusing on the spatio-temporal multi-scale structure with four levels of systematic research. Approved by the Commission for Public Reform of the CPC Central Committee, the Institute was officially renamed as the Institute of Process Engineering in 2001, realizing a historic leap from "Chemical and Metallurgical Innovation Institute" to "strong Process Engineering Institute". In the past ten years, facing the major strategic needs of green, intelligent and high-end process industry, we are committed to building a new model of integrated development of science, education and industry from foundation to application. In 2019, we led the establishment of the Green Process Manufacturing Innovation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences by combining with relevant domestic and foreign research strengths. Centering on the national "double carbon" goal, we take interface science as the core. In the fields of low-carbon energy, strategic resources, green chemicals, high-end materials and biomedicine, we will carry out strategic, pioneering and forward-looking technological breakthroughs and common basic research to support national strategic needs and lead the development of emerging industries.