Bao Xinhe, a physical chemist from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a National People's Congress deputy, reported a revolutionary chemical processing method that could make the country's basic chemical materials more affordable and eco-friendly.

The research, which reported a new reaction process to convert coals into olefins, was published over the weekend by Science magazine and stirred attention among the international scientific community.

"Olefins are known as the mother of petrochemicals, and are important intermediates in the production of plastic and medicines. The production capacity of olefins, to some extent, represents the development level of a country's chemical industry," said Wang Zizong, assistant chief engineer at Sinopec Group, one of the nation's top producers of crude oil.

Olefins can be produced from petroleum, coal, natural gas or biomass via synthesis gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen).

"Due to China's limited petroleum, last year we only produced 42 million tons of olefins, 60 percent of the domestic demand," Wang said. "That is why we need new technologies to produce olefins from other feedstocks."

As early as 1923, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany had developed a technology for converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons using metal catalysts - so-called Fischer-Tropsch synthesis - which was extensively used in industrial applications and has been constantly improved over the past century by scientists worldwide. However, conversion of synthesis gas directly to light olefins via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis technology remains limited.

The new process reported by Bao's team used a bifunctional catalyst containing partially reduced metal oxides and zeolite, which selectively converted synthesis gas to light olefins.

A review by Krijn P. de Jong from Utrecht University in the Netherlands said the research "should be of interest to both academia and industry". The review also appeared in Science on Friday. "The new process could become a serious competitor for industrial processes such as FTO (Fischer-Tropsch to olefins) and MTO (methanol to olefins)," de Jong wrote.

Currently Bao and his team are trying to extend the fundamental study to explore possible industrial applications.

"Back in June 2014, President Xi Jinping said the country needed a revolution in energy technology, together with related industries as a new driving force. From my point of view, the technological revolution should be combined with China's actual conditions," Bao said.

"While the US focuses on unconventional gas resources, the EU emphasizes renewable energy. We should fully understand the major energy challenge we are facing," he said, adding that development should focus on "technologies for the coal-based chemical industry".