The BRAIN-C Program started in October, 1995 as a large research project involving industry, administrative agencies and academia and will continue for 5 years at least. BRAIN- C Program is the abbreviation for the Basic Research Associate for Innovated Coal Utilization Program.
The BRAIN-C Programis a program for establishing technologies to serve as the foundation for development of coal untilization technologies including fluidized bed combustion technology and coal gasification combined power generation technology. The existing coal utilization technology development has started by manufacturing a specific - type combustion furnace or gasification furnace and the size of the furnace has been increased while testing the behavior of various types of coal in the furnace. However, if reaction mechanism and heat transfer characteristics of various types of coal can universally be described independently of the type of a furnace, it will be possible to design a furnace and quickly increase the size of the furnace on the basis of the description. That is, by developing a simulator capable of simulating various reactions and heat transfer, it may be possible to greatly increase the speed of coal utilization technology development to us the coal for various purposes and to use various types of coal. Development of the simulator requires knowledge of the minute properties of coal, coal reaction data, and various types of modelings according to the properties and the data. Thus, the BRAIN - C Program was started in oder to develop a simulator for coal utilization by integration and systematizing various pieces of information serving as the foundation for pyrolysis, gasification and combustion technology.
This research is a joint research project entrusted to the Center for Coal Utilization, Japan (CCUJ), the Japan Institute of Energy, and The Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The project has received a subsidy from the Coal Department, Agency of Natural Resources & Energy, Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and progresses with the cooperation of industry, universities, and national laboratories.

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