Acrylonitrile Ammoxidation Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since 2017. The peak year in this dataset was 2017 at 17 filings, and by 2026 (partial) the count is down to 1 — a flat-to-declining trend rather than a growing one.
- One assignee leads by a wide margin. The top-ranked company holds 21 families against a fifth-place count of 4 and a tenth-place count of 2, in a ranking of 19 companies total.
- Claims cluster hard around two IPC subclasses. C07C appears in 93.8% of the 64 records and B01J (catalysis) in 75.0%, while separation (B01D) and nitrogen-compound recovery (C01C) sit far behind.
What this patent set covers
Propylene ammoxidation converts propylene, ammonia and air over a catalyst bed into acrylonitrile, with hydrogen cyanide and acetonitrile as byproducts that must be recovered or destroyed. The 64 records in this dataset span the core reaction chemistry (bismuth molybdate and related catalyst systems), the reactor hardware that carries it out (fluidized bed reactors), and the downstream steps — quench, recovery, ammonium sulfate byproduct handling — that determine plant economics. Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend chart understate real filing activity for those years; the decline visible from the 2017 peak through the mid-2020s is the more reliable signal.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 64-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim volume.
A 2017 peak, then a long decline
Filings ran at 17 in 2017, roughly halved by the 2022 midpoint (7), and have continued down toward the single digits by 2026. This pattern is consistent with a process technology that reached a design plateau rather than one still being actively re-claimed.
Reaction chemistry and catalysis dominate
C07C (acyclic/carbocyclic compounds) touches 93.8% of the 64 records and B01J (catalytic processes) touches 75.0% — expected given the topic is a catalytic organic synthesis. General organic methods (C07B) appear in a quarter of records, separation processes (B01D) in 15.6%, and nitrogen-compound handling (C01C) in just 6.3%, pointing to comparatively thin coverage of byproduct and recovery chemistry relative to the core reaction.
Shares are the percentage of the 64 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Acrylonitrile via Propylene Ammoxidation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about acrylonitrile via propylene ammoxidation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings build on
Fluidized bed reactor and heat-removal water pipe for acrylonitrile production (EP4063010A1)
The filing covers a fluidized bed reactor with a reaction cooling section and a vertical inner component, where the ratio of the inner component's outer contour circumference to the cooling section's cross-sectional area (L1/S1) is fixed at 2.0-4.3 m⁻¹. The stated effect is to promote bubble breakup in the fluidized bed, which bears directly on heat removal and reaction efficiency at commercial scale.Filed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, 2022-09-28.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5256810A | Method for eliminating nitriding during acrylonitrile production | 67 |
| 2 | US6143915A | Reaction process in hybrid reactor for propylene ammoxidation | 19 |
| 3 | US6649130B1 | Reaction process in hybrid reactor for propylene ammoxidation | 12 |
| 4 | JP1982021358A | Deposition of waste liquid from acrylonitrile production | 11 |
| 5 | CN205797156U | 用于氨化氧化反应的流化床反应器的进料分布器 | 10 |
| 6 | EP0599460A1 | A method for eliminating nitriding during acrylonitrile production | 8 |
| 7 | EP3409356A1 | Fluid bed ammoxidation reaction catalyst, and acrylonitrile production method | 5 |
| 8 | CN106478457A | 改进的丙烯氨氧化工艺及其反应器 | 5 |
| 9 | JP2019081725A | Method for producing (METH)acrylonitrile | 4 |
| 10 | US10294197B2 | Purifying method, production method, and distillation apparatus for acrylonitrile | 4 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; treat this as a measure of influence on the field so far, not of which patents matter most today.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Reading the trend, the IPC spread and the citation table together points to a mature core process with narrower, still-active work at the edges.
A technology past its filing peak
The drop from 17 filings in 2017 to a midpoint of 7 in 2022 and down toward single digits since suggests the core reactor and catalyst claims were largely staked out in the mid-2010s. New filings now are more likely to be incremental hardware or recovery-step improvements than fresh core chemistry.
Reaction and catalyst claims are heavily occupied
With C07C and B01J each touching the large majority of records, new entrants filing on the core ammoxidation reaction or catalyst formulation face dense prior art. That density reflects how much claim space is occupied, not that the underlying chemistry is exhausted.
Byproduct handling is thinly claimed
HCN, acetonitrile and ammonium sulfate byproduct recovery sit inside the search scope but only C01C — nitrogen-compound chemistry — shows up in 6.3% of records, and separation processes (B01D) in 15.6%. This is a narrower band of prior art than the core reaction.
One filer well ahead of a long tail
The leading assignee holds 21 families; by fifth place that drops to 4, and by tenth place to 2, across a ranking of 19 companies. Momentum data shows even the largest filer added only 1 family in the latest year, consistent with the broader slowdown.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to acrylonitrile via propylene ammoxidation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape
Filing is led by one company with a substantial family count, followed by a long tail of assignees with single-digit filings — a pattern typical of a process technology where the foundational patents are decades-established and later entrants file narrower improvements.
A clear single leader
The top-ranked assignee's 21 families sit well ahead of the rest of the ranked list, reflecting sustained investment across the catalyst, reactor and process-engineering side of ammoxidation.
A modest second tier
Fifth place holds 4 families — enough to indicate a sustained program, but a fraction of the leader's count. This tier includes chemical producers and engineering firms rather than single inventors.
Single-digit filers make up most of the list
By tenth place the count is down to 2 families, and the ranking runs to 19 companies total — most holding only one or two filings, typical of engineering contractors filing on specific plant hardware.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) | 1 | — |
| Asahi Kasei Corporation | 0 | — |
| Sinopec Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology | 0 | — |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Standard Oil Company | 0 | — |
| Standard Oil Company | 0 | — |
| UOP LLC | 0 | — |
| Tsukishima Kikai Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and assignee data point to specific next questions for a freedom-to-operate or whitespace review.
Map the leader's claim boundaries
With one assignee holding 21 of the ranked families, a claim-by-claim read of its reactor and catalyst filings will show where its coverage actually stops — and where a design-around is realistic versus blocked.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Byproduct recovery and wastewater handling show thin IPC coverage relative to the core reaction. Before investing in a specific recovery process, check whether that thinness reflects genuine white space or simply narrower search scope.
Run a whitespace search in EurekaCommon questions on this patent set
In this dataset of 64 records, one assignee leads the ranking with 21 families, well ahead of the rest of the field — fifth place holds 4 families and tenth place holds 2, across a ranking of 19 companies total. That gap suggests one company has filed continuously on both catalyst chemistry and reactor hardware, while most other filers hold only one or two families each, often tied to a specific plant or engineering project. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work in this space should start with the leader's portfolio before looking at the long tail.
Filing peaked at 17 in 2017 and has declined since, sitting at 7 by the 2022 midpoint and down toward single digits by 2026. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any such trend are always understated, so the true 2025-2026 filing rate is likely somewhat higher than shown. Even allowing for that lag, the overall shape is flat-to-declining rather than growing, consistent with a process technology whose core claims were staked out years ago.
EP4063010A1, filed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation in 2022, claims a fluidized bed reactor design where the ratio between the outer contour circumference of a vertical internal component and the cross-sectional area of the reaction cooling section (L1/S1) is fixed between 2.0 and 4.3 per metre. The stated purpose is to promote bubble breakup in the fluidized bed for better heat removal during acrylonitrile production. It is a hardware-geometry claim on the reactor internals, not a claim on the ammoxidation catalyst chemistry or the overall reaction sequence, so it constrains reactor internals design more than it blocks catalyst or process-route innovation.
IPC composition across the 64 records in scope shows heavy concentration in the core reaction and catalysis classes (C07C at 93.8%, B01J at 75.0%), but much thinner coverage in nitrogen-compound recovery (C01C, 6.3%), separation processes (B01D, 15.6%) and mixing/stirring equipment (B01F, 3.1%). Byproduct handling — HCN and acetonitrile destruction, ammonium sulfate crystallization, quench-water treatment — sits in that thinner band. Thin IPC coverage is a signal worth investigating rather than a guarantee of open space, since it may also reflect the narrower scope of the search terms used to build this dataset.
Among the receiving offices captured in this dataset, the European Patent Office leads with 19 filings, followed by India at 13, with China and the United States each at 6, Japan at 5, and South Korea at 3. That spread indicates filers are pursuing protection across multiple major markets rather than concentrating in a single jurisdiction, which is typical for a process technology tied to large capital-intensive plants that get built in more than one region.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
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Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.