Biorefineries Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has fallen 70% since the 2021 peak. Filings dropped from 53 in 2021 to 16 in 2024, the last year the trend can be read as complete before publication lag distorts the count.
- The top 5 assignees already hold half the field. 164 of 325 records in scope (50.5%) sit with just five companies, with the leader alone credited with 68 records.
- Fermentation claims dominate; hydrocarbon refining trails. C12P fermentation and enzymatic synthesis touches 39.1% of records, more than three times the 13.5% carrying C10G hydrocarbon oil and refining classes.
Filing growth compares 2021 (53 records) with 2024 (16) — 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 325 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What counts as a biorefinery patent here
This landscape covers 325 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine biorefinery or biomass-refinery terminology with a specific technical operation: feedstock pretreatment, catalytic upgrading, fuel fractionation, carbon intensity accounting, biofuel blending, or conversion yield. That pairing excludes generic biomass-energy filings and keeps the set focused on process and integration claims rather than agronomy or combustion hardware.
Patent families, not raw document counts, are the unit used for the assignee ranking and the concentration figures below, which keeps multi-jurisdiction filing strategies from inflating any single company's position.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 325 records: how filing activity moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A 2021 peak followed by a sharp pullback
Filings ran from 33 in 2017 up to a peak of 53 in 2021, then fell to 16 by 2024 — a 70% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 counts are still low because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months; they should not yet be read as a continued decline.
Fermentation claims lead by a wide margin
C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) appears in 39.1% of the 325 records, ahead of B01D separation processes at 23.7% and C07C carbocyclic compounds at 17.8%. Hydrocarbon-oil refining (C10G) and fuel formulation (C10L) sit lower, at 13.5% and 8.6% respectively — a record can carry more than one class, so these figures overlap rather than sum to 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 325 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Biorefineries Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about biorefineries patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in the corpus
Tracking, Accounting, and Reporting Machine
A method for tracking a carbon-containing process input through a supply chain, tracking the hydrocarbon fluid it produces once injected into a subterranean environment, and computing a carbon intensity value for the resulting fuel based on sequestration of the input and utilisation of its co-products.Filed by 1234 10TH STREET LLC, published 2014-11-27 as US20140351153A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130014431A1 | Advanced, biomass-derived, low-sulfur bunker fuels | 77 |
| 2 | US20130079566A1 | Catalytic process for conversion of biomass into hydrocarbon fuels | 76 |
| 3 | US20130237728A1 | Transportation fuels from biomass oxygenates | 62 |
| 4 | US20190203012A1 | Lignin valorization in ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvent via catalysis and biocatalysis | 41 |
| 5 | WO2010096510A2 | Tempering of cellulosic biomass | 40 |
| 6 | US20190233751A1 | Processing biomass | 35 |
| 7 | US20190390405A1 | Novel Methods For Processing Lignocellulosic Material | 34 |
| 8 | US20150233001A1 | Microbial electrochemical cells and methods for producing electricity and bioproducts therein | 26 |
| 9 | US20120271677A1 | Tracking, Accounting, and Reporting Machine | 26 |
| 10 | US9925476B2 | Energy-efficient systems including combined heat and power and mechanical vapor compression for biofuel or bi… | 25 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; treat them as a signal of what the field has built on, not of current filing priority.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and citation figures above.
The top of the field is settled
With the leading assignee alone credited with 68 records and the top five together holding 164 of 325 records in scope, core process claims around fermentation and separation are already occupied by a small group. New entrants competing head-on in those exact claim areas face dense prior art from a handful of holders.
Activity has cooled from its peak
The peak year of 2021 has not been matched since, and by 2024 — the most recent year the trend can be read as complete — filings had fallen 70%. That decline sits alongside a period where several of the most active named assignees show zero filings in their latest recorded year.
Fermentation outweighs hydrocarbon refining
C12P fermentation and enzymatic synthesis claims appear in nearly four in ten records, while hydrocarbon-oil refining under C10G appears in about one in eight. That gap suggests biochemical conversion routes have drawn far more claim activity than thermochemical or catalytic hydrocarbon pathways within this corpus.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to biorefineries patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
The assignee landscape
79 companies and institutions make up the full ranked list returned for this search — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the complete set the dataset surfaces.
One filer well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee is credited with 68 of the 325 records in scope, more than four times the count at fifth place (16). That gap between first and fifth is the clearest sign of where process know-how is concentrated.
A long tail below the leaders
Beyond the top 10, which together account for 68.9% of records, the remaining ranked assignees each hold a modest share of the corpus. That pattern is typical of a field with a few entrenched holders and many single- or few-filing entrants testing narrower claims.
Several leaders have gone quiet recently
A number of the more active named assignees, including firms with strong historical filing counts, show zero filings in their most recent recorded year, with year-over-year drops of -100% where prior-year activity existed. That does not necessarily mean exit from the space — publication lag means recent filings may not yet be visible — but it is worth tracking before assuming continued dominance.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Energy Integration Inc | 0 | -100% |
| GranBio Intellectual Property Holdings LLC | 0 | -100% |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | -100% |
| The Governing Council of the University of Toronto | 0 | — |
| CMBlu Energy AG | 0 | — |
| Carbon Technology Holdings LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC | 0 | — |
| HAMRICK EDWARD BRIAN | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific holders.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top holders
With half of all records held by five assignees, a new filing in fermentation or separation claims should be checked against those portfolios specifically, not just the field average.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the momentum shift before it becomes obvious
Several previously active filers show zero filings in their latest year. Confirming whether that is a genuine slowdown or a publication-lag artefact matters before drawing conclusions.
Track filing momentum in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches directly
Lignin valorisation, carbon-intensity tracking and catalytic fractionation show thinner claim density than core fermentation classes. That is where a first-to-file position is still realistic.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on biorefinery patents
Within this dataset of 325 records, one assignee leads with 68 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 16. The top five assignees combined account for 50.5% of all records in scope, meaning half the field sits with a small group of companies and institutions. Anyone assessing competitive position in this space should look closely at that leader's specific claim scope rather than treating the field as fragmented.
Filing peaked in 2021 at 53 records and had fallen to 16 by 2024, a 70% drop over that three-year span — the most recent period that can be read as a complete trend. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are lower still, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than a confirmed continued decline. The honest read is that activity cooled sharply after 2021, with the very latest data too thin to call a direction beyond that.
Fermentation and enzymatic synthesis (IPC class C12P) appears in 39.1% of the 325 records, the single largest technology grouping, followed by separation processes such as filtration (B01D) at 23.7%. Hydrocarbon-oil refining and fuel formulation classes trail well behind, each under 15% of records. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures describe overlapping claim density rather than a strict market split.
Relative to the dense fermentation and separation classes, areas like lignin valorisation via ionic liquids or deep eutectic solvents, carbon-intensity supply-chain tracking, and catalytic hydrocarbon fractionation carry comparatively thinner claim coverage. That does not mean these areas are unclaimed, but the density is lower than in the core biochemical-conversion classes, which is where a first claim is more likely to clear prior art cleanly. Any filing decision there should still be checked against the specific most-cited records in the field.
US20140351153A1, filed by 1234 10TH STREET LLC and published in November 2014, claims a method of tracking a carbon-containing input through a supply chain, tracking the hydrocarbon fluid extracted using that input, and computing a carbon-intensity value for the resulting fuel based on sequestration of the input and use of its co-products. That is a supply-chain accounting method tied to sequestration and co-product utilisation, not a claim over a conversion process or catalyst itself. Anyone building carbon-intensity reporting tools for biofuel production should read its specific method steps closely rather than assuming it blocks all carbon-accounting approaches.
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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.