Argon Recovery in Air Separation: Patents, Leading Filers and Open Claim Space
One filer dominates the ranking. the leading assignee holds 93 of the records in the 13-company ranking, with a long tail down to single-digit counts by fifth place. Filing peaked at 11 records in 2018. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent span that can be treated as complete, shows a full -100% move down to zero; 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete under the usual 18-month publication lag and should not be read as a continued decline.
- 1PRAXAIR TECH INC93
- 2AIR PROD & CHEM INC23
- 3THE BOC GRP PLC6
- 4ROOKS RAYMOND EDWIN3
- 5HOWARD HENRY EDWARD3
See the full argon recovery in air separation analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who holds the most patents in argon recovery from air separation?
Within the 13-company ranking this dataset covers, one assignee, Praxair Technology, holds 93 of the ranked records, far ahead of the fifth-place figure of 3 and the tenth-place figure of 1. Air Products and Chemicals is separately notable as the owner of the most-cited family in the set, built around structured-packing column designs. Because this ranking reflects only the records matched by this specific search, it should not be read as a complete map of every company active in cryogenic air separation.
Is patent filing activity in argon recovery increasing or declining?
Filing peaked at 11 records in 2018 and the last complete span, 2021 to 2024, shows a full drop to zero, a -100% change. That said, publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be treated as confirming a continued decline. The honest read is that the architecture had a concentrated burst of filing activity around 2018 and has been quiet since, with the very latest picture still unresolved.
What does EP0341854B1 actually cover?
EP0341854B1, assigned to Air Products and Chemicals and granted in 1992, claims the use of structured packing in at least the low-pressure column and an argon sidearm column within an integrated multi-column cryogenic distillation system, typically a three-column arrangement. It is the anchor of the most-cited family in this dataset, with related records EP0341854A1 and US4871382A also carrying high citation counts. Anyone designing a packed-column argon recovery system should review this family closely, since it underlies much of the field's later citation activity.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Argon Recovery in Air Separation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.