Alcohol-to-Jet Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has flattened since its 2023 peak. 485 records filed in 2023 against 416 in 2017 and only 14 so far in the partial 2026 count — growth is not accelerating.
- No single filer dominates. The leader holds 1,776 records but the top 5 assignees together are just 8.2% of all 74,975 records in scope — this is a fragmented field, not a walled garden.
- Core chemistry classes dwarf the fuel-specific class. C07C acyclic compound claims cover 13.8% of records versus 1.2% for C10L fuels-specific claims — most of the prior art sits in general organic chemistry, not fuel formulation.
Filing growth compares 2021 (459 records) with 2024 (347) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 74,975 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the alcohol-to-jet patent record actually shows
Alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) conversion turns ethanol, isobutanol or related alcohols into jet-range hydrocarbons through a sequence of dehydration, oligomerization and hydrogenation steps, with the resulting carbon number distribution tuned to meet ASTM fuel property requirements. The patent record searched here spans 74,975 records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, covering the core reaction chemistry as well as adjacent separation, catalysis and detergent-adjacent chemistries that share the same acyclic and heterocyclic compound classes.
The dataset is broad by design: because the underlying chemistry overlaps with surfactant, lubricant and general organic synthesis patents, class shares in this landscape sum to more than 100% of records, and a single filing can sit in several IPC subclasses at once. Read the concentration and trend figures below with that overlap in mind, and treat family-level counts as the more reliable signal of real filing activity than raw document totals.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 74,975-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Annual filings rose from 416 in 2017 to a peak of 485 in 2023, with 2022 sitting at 412 as a rough midpoint — a flat-to-declining pattern rather than sustained growth. The 2026 figure of 14 is a partial-year count; publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so recent years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) accounts for 13.8% of all records, more than double the next largest class, B01J catalysis and chemical process claims at 5.0%. Fuel-specific claims under C10L sit at just 1.2%, and separation processes under B01D at 1.2% — a sign that most of the documented invention activity is in general chemistry and catalysis rather than fuel-property engineering itself.
Shares are the percentage of the 74,975 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Alcohol-to-Jet Conversion for Aviation Fuel with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about alcohol-to-jet conversion for aviation fuel and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US8187347B2 — Method for producing composition using alcohol as starting material
Filed by Kabushiki Kaisha Sangi, this patent describes converting alcohol such as ethanol into a liquid phase of alcohols, water and 4-12 carbon hydrocarbons plus a light gas phase, using an alcohol conversion catalyst such as hydroxyapatite followed by hydrogenation of the reaction products.Granted 2012-05-29 — now a foundational reference for catalytic alcohol-conversion routes to jet-range hydrocarbons.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4410501A | Preparation of porous crystalline synthetic material comprised of silicon and titanium oxides | 1,440 |
| 2 | US4507219A | Stable liquid detergent compositions | 968 |
| 3 | US6509180B1 | Process for producing ethanol | 639 |
| 4 | US5241003A | Ashless dispersants formed from substituted acylating agents and their production and use | 576 |
| 5 | US20070092957A1 | Fermentive production of four carbon alcohols | 566 |
| 6 | US7608744B1 | Ethanol production from acetic acid utilizing a cobalt catalyst | 541 |
| 7 | US7863489B2 | Direct and selective production of ethanol from acetic acid utilizing a platinum/tin catalyst | 498 |
| 8 | US5149680A | Platinum group metal alloy catalysts for hydrogenation of carboxylic acids and their anhydrides to alcohols a… | 490 |
| 9 | US6927048B2 | Process for producing ethanol | 460 |
| 10 | US5137980A | Ashless dispersants formed from substituted acylating agents and their production and use | 455 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to be cited — treat this table as a map of influential prior art, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the concentration, trend and citation data that matter for anyone deciding where to file or partner next.
Leadership is thin, not absolute
The leading assignee holds 1,776 records, and the top 5 together account for only 8.2% of all records in scope; the top 10 reach 12.9%. That leaves the large majority of filings spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants rather than locked up by a handful of majors.
Growth has plateaued since 2023
Filings climbed from 416 in 2017 to a peak of 485 in 2023, roughly doubling around the 2022 midpoint of 412 before flattening. Recent-year assignee momentum data shows several established filers pulling back sharply year-on-year rather than accelerating.
General chemistry claims dominate over fuel-specific ones
C07C acyclic and carbocyclic compound claims cover 13.8% of the 74,975 records, while C10L fuels-and-firelighters claims cover only 1.2%. That gap suggests the fuel-property engineering layer — carbon number distribution tuning, ASTM property optimisation — is comparatively lightly claimed relative to the underlying chemistry.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to alcohol-to-jet conversion for aviation fuel, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Celanese International Corporation | JOHNSTON VICTOR J | 135 |
| Celanese International Corporation | WARNER R JAY | 94 |
| IFP Energies Nouvelles | Total Research & Technology Feluy | 93 |
| Celanese International Corporation | SARAGER LINCOLN | 73 |
| Celanese International Corporation | WEINER HEIKO | 67 |
| Celanese International Corporation | LEE DAVID | 57 |
| Celanese International Corporation | JEVTIC RADMILA | 56 |
| Celanese International Corporation | OROSCO ADAM | 45 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data, with the strongest pairings linking a single corporate parent to named individual inventors or to a joint research partner — a pattern typical of internally developed catalyst chemistry rather than cross-company joint ventures.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
No single company controls alcohol-to-jet claim space, but a recognisable set of chemical majors and specialty producers anchor the ranked leaders while a long tail files once or twice each.
A clear leader without dominance
The top-ranked assignee holds 1,776 records, well ahead of fifth place at 864 and tenth place at 623 — a real gap at the very top, but not enough share of the 74,975-record total to foreclose the field for new entrants.
Established filers are slowing down
Several assignees with long filing histories show single-digit filing counts in the latest year and steep year-on-year declines. That pattern is consistent with a field where the foundational chemistry is largely staked out and majors are shifting effort elsewhere.
Filing is concentrated in a few offices
The United States leads receiving offices with 6,877 filings, ahead of the EPO at 3,999 and the UK at 3,343; WIPO PCT filings sit at 2,227. That distribution points to the US as the primary contested jurisdiction, with Europe as the clear secondary market.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation | 3 | -25% |
| BASF SE | 1 | -94% |
| ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company | 1 | -75% |
| Celanese International Corporation | 0 | — |
| Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. | 0 | — |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (USA) | 0 | — |
| Kuraray Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Kao Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, partnership scouting or white-space filing.
Map freedom-to-operate against the most-cited prior art
Start from the highest-cited records in this dataset, since those define the boundaries other filers have had to design around for over a decade.
Explore citation trees in EurekaTrack the pullback among established filers
Several long-standing assignees show sharp year-on-year declines in filing counts, which can signal either a maturing core technology or a shift of R&D budget elsewhere worth monitoring directly.
Set up assignee alerts in EurekaScope claims in the under-claimed fuel-property layer
With C10L fuels-specific claims at only 1.2% of records against 13.8% for general C07C chemistry, the fuel-property engineering layer looks comparatively open for new filings.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about alcohol-to-jet patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 1,776 records, with a noticeable gap down to fifth place at 864 and tenth place at 623. Even so, the top 5 assignees combined represent only 8.2% of the 74,975 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 12.9% — so no single company controls the field. The ranking covers 100 companies in total, the full set the underlying data source returns, and includes a long tail of firms with only a handful of filings each.
Filing activity has flattened rather than accelerated. Annual filings rose from 416 in 2017 to a peak of 485 in 2023, passing through roughly 412 at the 2022 midpoint, and the partial 2026 count sits at just 14. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years will always look artificially thin, but the multi-year trend through 2023-2024 already shows a plateau rather than continued growth.
The core process chain covers dehydration of the starting alcohol (ethanol or isobutanol), oligomerization to build longer carbon chains, and hydrogenation to saturate the resulting olefins into stable jet-range hydrocarbons. The final product's carbon number distribution has to be tuned to meet ASTM fuel property specifications for aviation use. In the patent data, this chemistry sits mostly under IPC classes C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds, 13.8% of records) and B01J (catalysis and chemical processes, 5.0% of records), with comparatively few filings specifically classified under C10L fuels claims.
The clearest gap is between the general chemistry classes and the fuel-specific ones: C07C claims cover 13.8% of the 74,975 records while C10L fuels-and-firelighters claims cover only 1.2%, and B01D separation-process claims sit at 1.2% as well. That suggests fewer filings are specifically targeting fuel-property optimisation, carbon-number-distribution control, or downstream separation steps compared with the volume of general catalytic conversion chemistry already claimed. Isobutanol-specific oligomerization pathways also appear comparatively less crowded than ethanol-based routes in the broader record.
The United States is the leading receiving office with 6,877 filings, followed by the European Patent Office at 3,999 and the United Kingdom at 3,343. WIPO PCT filings, which represent international applications before national phase entry, total 2,227. Canada (1,416) and Australia (966) are smaller but still active jurisdictions, indicating the US and Europe are the primary markets where competitive filing decisions matter most.
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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.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
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.