Simulink package in conjunction with MATLAB has lots of potential to develop ANN models. In my opinion, it is much easier to work with Simulink/MATLAB for ANN modelling.
Hi Hassan, I suggest using R packages such as caret, neuralnet, nnet, and RSNNS which are very good in ANN. As I know there is no a rule for minimum value of data size, you should fit your ANN model and by checking errors make a decision about ANN precision.
In my experience for the optimal operation of the gassification procces the best model consist in 2 hiddden (4 and 8 nodes, respectively) , input and output layers, sigmoidal tangent functionrs. I am attaching a publication related.