In the middle of the Ordos Desert that borders North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Shaanxi province, a huge factory was recently built to perform the kind of tricks that most people believe only magicians are capable of doing - turning black solid coal into clean liquid fuels.

The factory, owned by China's biggest coal producer, the Shenhua Group, is surrounded by dozens and dozens of coal mines and sits on top of an enormous coal deposit renowned for its quality. It is also home to many top scientists who are undertaking research and development of direct coal liquefaction technology.

Although relatively unfamiliar in most people's vocabulary, the technology dates back to World War II when German scientists developed a technology to convert coal into liquid fuels like gasoline and diesel.