Direct Cathode Recycling Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (14 records) with 2024 (5) — 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 38 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What direct cathode-material recycling covers, and why it is filed differently from black-mass smelting
Direct cathode-material recycling aims to recover and relithiate intact cathode structures from spent lithium-ion cells rather than reducing them to metal salts through smelting or acid leaching. The technique promises lower energy input and preserved crystal structure, which is why filings in this dataset cluster tightly under H01M battery-cell classifications even as the underlying claims range from mechanical separation to electrochemical relithiation. The 38 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, drawn from a search string that pairs direct cathode-recovery language with the broader battery-recycling and second-life vocabulary.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the years closest to the cut-off will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be. The 2021 peak and the subsequent decline to 2024 are the most reliable read this dataset currently supports; anything from 2025 onward is still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
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Filing trend and technology composition
The two views below use the same 38-record base: one tracks filings by year, the other breaks the corpus down by IPC subclass. Because a single record can carry several classes, the technology shares add up to more than 100% of records.
A sharp 2021 peak, not a steady climb
Filings rose from a single record in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2021, then dropped to 5 by 2024 — a 64% decline over that three-year span. That pattern reads less like a maturing field settling into steady output and more like a burst of activity around a specific technical push that has since cooled, pending whatever the still-incomplete 2025–2026 years eventually show.
Battery-cell claims dominate; recovery-process classes lag
H01M appears in 94.7% of the 38 records, confirming that nearly every filing frames itself as battery-cell technology first. B09B (solid waste disposal) and C22B (metal extraction and refining) each sit at 23.7%, and niche process classes — C01B, B01J, B29B, C08J, C25C — sit at 5–8% apiece. That gap between the dominant cell-level framing and the thinner process-engineering classes is where much of the unclaimed technical detail likely sits.
Shares are the percentage of the 38 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Battery Recycling & Second Life — Direct Cathode-Material Recycling Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe records other filings cite most
System and method for lithium-ion battery cathode-material recovery (EP4417313A1)
The present disclosure provides a lithium-ion battery cathode material recovery system and method built around a crusher, dryer, two separator-and-vibrating-screen stages, an eddy current separator and a dust collector, aimed at improving recovery rate by limiting scattering of cathode-material powder and reducing fire and explosion risk during the crushing stage.Filed by Lee, Ha Baik; published 2024-08-21.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20210384563A1 | Anode recovery in recycled batteries | 16 |
| 2 | US20210257685A1 | Efficient recovery processes for the black mass from spent lithium-ion batteries | 12 |
| 3 | WO2021252433A1 | Anode recovery in recycled batteries | 11 |
| 4 | WO2021252433A9 | Anode recovery in recycled batteries | 10 |
| 5 | US20220200074A1 | Recovery of materials from electrode scraps and spent lithium-ion batteries via a green solvent-based separat… | 6 |
| 6 | US20220200073A1 | Recovery of materials from spent batteries using a green solvent | 3 |
| 7 | US20240318341A1 | Process for the production of lithium metal or an alloy thereof or for the pre-lithiation of an electrode mat… | 2 |
| 8 | WO2023214352A1 | Process for the recovery of electrochemically active powder for use in new batteries | 2 |
| 9 | US11664542B2 | Recovery of materials from electrode scraps and spent lithium-ion batteries via a green solvent-based separat… | 2 |
| 10 | US20260121145A1 | Systems and methods for cathode-to-cathode upcycling of oxide cathode active materials | 1 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
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The ranking is short — 15 companies in total — and most of the volume sits at the top of it, but recent-year filing activity has gone quiet across the board.
Concentration sits at the top of a short ranking
The top 5 assignees combined hold 65.8% of all 38 records in scope, and the top 10 extend that to 92.1%. With only 15 companies in the ranking altogether, that leaves a genuinely thin tail rather than a long one — most organisations that have filed at all appear only once or twice.
A 2021 burst that has not repeated
Filing volume climbed from a single record in 2017 to 14 in 2021, then fell 64% to 5 by 2024 — the most recent year the trend can be read with confidence given publication lag. Whether that decline continues depends on filings still working through the pipeline.
US and PCT filings lead; India is a notable secondary venue
The United States receives the largest single share of filings at 17, with WIPO/PCT applications at 10 indicating a meaningful share of applicants pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection. Europe and India each sit at 5, and China shows only 1 record in this dataset.
Co-filing is limited to a small research cluster
Only four co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest links forming a tight three-way cluster among individual named inventors rather than corporate joint ventures. That suggests most of this space is still filed by single organisations working independently.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to battery recycling & second life — direct cathode-material recycling patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The figures above establish where filing has concentrated and where it has not. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going record by record.
Map claims against the recovery-process classes
B09B and C22B each sit at only 23.7% of records despite the field's process-heavy nature — worth checking whether that reflects genuine white space or claims filed under other classification codes.
Explore the technology in EurekaTrack the assignees still active post-2021
With every tracked assignee showing zero filings in the latest year, distinguishing a genuine pipeline gap from a lag artefact requires checking filing dates against publication dates directly.
Run an assignee search in EurekaCommon questions on direct cathode-material recycling patents
Direct cathode-material recycling recovers and relithiates intact cathode particles from spent lithium-ion cells, aiming to preserve the layered crystal structure rather than breaking it down. Conventional black-mass recycling instead shreds cells and uses pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical processes to recover individual metals like cobalt, nickel and lithium as separate salts. The direct route is generally lower-energy but requires tighter control over feedstock chemistry and particle degradation, which shows up in this dataset as a heavy concentration of filings under battery-cell classification (H01M) rather than metal-extraction classes.
The assignee ranking for this dataset covers 15 companies, with the leader holding 8 of the 38 records in scope — well ahead of the field. The top 5 assignees combined account for 65.8% of all records, and the top 10 extend that to 92.1%, meaning a small number of organisations account for nearly all the documented filing activity. Beyond the leader, counts flatten quickly: fifth place and tenth place both sit at 2 records.
Filings rose from a single record in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2021, then fell 64% to 5 by 2024 — the most recent year that can be read reliably given an approximately 18-month publication lag. That decline should not be read as the field cooling permanently, since 2025 and 2026 filings are still working through the publication pipeline and will understate true activity for some time. The honest read is that 2021 saw a burst of filing that has not yet repeated at the same scale.
Recovery-process classes sit well below the dominant H01M battery-cell classification: B09B (solid waste disposal) and C22B (metal extraction and refining) each cover only 23.7% of the 38 records, and niche process classes such as C01B, B01J, B29B, C08J and C25C each sit at 5-8%. That gap suggests process-engineering detail — separation methods, solvent chemistry, electrolytic relithiation routes — carries comparatively thin claim coverage relative to the cell-level framing most filings use.
Filing patterns in this dataset lean heavily toward the United States, which receives 17 of the 38 records, with WIPO/PCT applications at 10 indicating meaningful multi-jurisdiction intent among a subset of applicants. Europe and India each show 5 records, while China shows only 1, suggesting the Chinese market may be comparatively open for new filings in this specific technical niche even though it is a major battery-manufacturing base generally. Any filing strategy should be checked against a live search, since a single dataset snapshot cannot capture jurisdiction-specific drafting nuances.
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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.