North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region has unveiled its top science and technology achievements of 2025, showcasing landmark breakthroughs that close critical technology gaps at home and abroad and reflect the region's accelerating push toward sci-tech self-reliance and industrial upgrading.

The large-scale carbon dioxide integrated heating and cooling system at the Ordos airport. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Department of Science and Technology]

A major highlight is the completion of the world's first zero-carbon airport at Ordos Ejin Horo International Airport. The facility is powered by a pioneering large-scale carbon dioxide integrated heating and cooling system designed for wide-temperature-range operation, coupled with cross-seasonal ground-source energy storage, and an AI smart control platform.

It achieves 60 percent overall energy savings and cuts direct carbon emissions by more than 95 percent. Renewable energy accounts for nearly 94 percent of the total supply, setting a benchmark for green transformation in the transport sector.

The research team at Inner Mongolia University conducts an experiment. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Department of Science and Technology]

In agricultural biotechnology, a team from Inner Mongolia University bred the world's first cattle and sheep derived from haploid stem cells, with their findings published in Nature Biotechnology. This innovation establishes a new breeding strategy for ruminants, shortening the traditional breeding cycle from up to 20 years to just 12 months.

Ultra-high-voltage hybrid commutation converter. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Department of Science and Technology]

In the energy field, researchers developed the world's first ultra-high-voltage (UHV) hybrid commutation converter (HCC) for ±800kV UHV direct current transmission systems. This breakthrough enhances transmission stability and efficiency, with total power loss accounting for only 0.3 percent of capacity, providing critical technological support for large-scale renewable energy delivery across China.

The world's largest single-plant coal-to-olefins project. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Department of Science and Technology]

Industrial innovation also made headlines with the launch of the Baofeng coal-to-olefins project in Ordos, which has an annual capacity of 3 million metric tons – the world's largest single-plant facility of its kind. The project features fully domestically developed core equipment, incorporates multiple technologies that meet top-tier international standards, and is currently the only large-scale plant in the world to use green hydrogen substitution in olefins production.

China's first 720V solid-state sodium-salt battery energy storage station. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Department of Science and Technology]

Meanwhile, Inner Mongolia-based Jianheng Aoneng Technology Co developed China's first 720V solid-state sodium battery using a ceramic solid electrolyte. The battery operates safely from -40 C to 60 C, delivers more than 7,000 charge cycles, and achieves high safety standards, marking a significant step forward for the energy storage industry.