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The Instituto Nacional del Carbón (INCAR), located in Oviedo, belongs to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC-Spanish Council for Scientific Research), an Autonomous Organism attached to the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (MCYT-Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology). INCAR is included, with ten other Institutes, within the area of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, one of the eight research areas of the CSIC. Founded in 1947, the initial objective of the Instituto Nacional del Carbón (INCAR) was to assist the newly formed local steel industry in various aspects related to the coking of Spanish coals and the upgrading of bituminous coals and anthracites mined in Asturias. The present headquarters were built in June 1952 and inaugurated in 1960. The role of INCAR was further consolidated by the installations for the preparation of coal blends and coke ovens of different scales from laboratory to semi-industrial. From the beginning, INCAR has devoted its scientific and technical research to many aspects of domestic and imported coals, conversion processes including combustion for energy generation and coking for metallurgical coke production-, in order to achieve a more efficient and clean utilization of coal and its products. INCAR also performs an important activity on the development of new carbon materials, whose structural, textural, electric, electrochemical and catalytic properties are investigated for the most modern applications, from composites to supercapacitors. The picture is completed by a modern research line in nanostructured ceramic materials. Financial support is obtained from public sources (Local and National Research Programmes and European Programmes), as well as, industrial research contracts (Mining and Steel Industry, Coke and Tar Refining, Oil Companies, Electricity Utilities, etc). At present, INCAR is composed of four Research Departments, two Support Units and one Administration Division.
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