History

PSE was launched in 1997 as the first spin-off company from the Centre for Process Systems Engineering (CPSE) at Imperial College London (ICL). At launch, the company acquired all rights to technologies developed at the CPSE in the years since its inception in 1990, including the already well-established gPROMS simulation and optimisation engine and the gBSS and SUPERBATCH planning and scheduling software. A further royalty agreement provided PSE with rights to subsequent developments in these areas for the next three-and-a-half years in exchange for continued funding of the CPSE's fundamental R&D activities.

The College maintains an equity holding via the Imperial Fleming Family Partner & Gordon House llp, in which its Imperial Innovations subsidiary is a major shareholder.

PSE was self-funding from the start, when initial customers including Mitsubishi Chemical, DuPont and Dow Chemical adopted gPROMS as part of their core dynamic simulation and optimisation capabilities. Apart from a rights issue to shareholders and personnel in 2003 in order to assist expansion, the company has continued to be funded entirely by sales of its software and services.

Despite being a newcomer in a well-established and competitive market, PSE has grown substantially from its inception and has established a strong global client base of leading companies in the chemicals, fine chemicals, fuel cell, petrochemical, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, minerals & mining, food and other process industry sectors, as well as their technology suppliers.

Building on our academic roots, we also have a wide range of academic users around the world, and maintain excellent relations with leading Process Systems Engineering R&D groups.

A comprehensive programme of Continuous Innovation ensures that PSE's software technology is constantly evolving, and that we are continually advancing the frontiers of modelling technology and its application within industry. This helps us maintain our technology-leading position, and ensures that we will be ready to meet the challenges of the process industries as modelling becomes an increasingly important technology in the future.