With a vast number of advanced vehicles on the road and stricter controls on emissions in China, demand for better quality gasoline has skyrocketed.

A team from the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing has now developed proprietary technology to help deliver it.

"A naphtha catalytic reforming unit is key to producing high-octane gasoline," said Ma Aizeng, director of institute affiliated with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, widely known as Sinopec.

"Complete catalytic converter expertise was before mastered in only two countries, but now China has become the third with its own independent intellectual property," he said proudly.

The process actually rearranges - or reforms - hydrocarbon molecules for higher energy potential.

The patented technology produces catalysts called PS-VI and PS-VII. Both meet leading international standards.

PS-VI is now included on the supply list of ExxonMobil, the largest US oil company.

The technology won Ma and two colleagues a China Patent Award gold medal this year.

The patented approach can also be applied to make chemical fibers, plastics and rubber materials related to the country's strategic and economic security, according to Ma.

PS-VI and PS-VII are now used in 28 of the nation's 38 catalytic reforming units. But they are not the only homegrown catalysts, said the director.

"We have had two generations of products," Ma said. "With the previous versions, we accumulated experience that have paved way for the successful invention of the two latest catalysts."

The research team spent just eight months in bringing the PS-VI catalyst from the lab and into production, considered a "miracle in the catalytic reforming industry", Ma noted.

Along with new catalysts, the research team also created assorted processes, equipment and control techniques for catalytic reforming technology.

"China can totally rely on its proprietary technologies to establish a 10 million ton refinery," said Su Shulin, director-general of Sinopec.

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