Blue Hydrogen Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2022 at 17 families and has not been matched since, suggesting the initial wave of reforming-plus-capture claims is largely staked out.
- China leads receiving offices with 12 filings ahead of the United States at 9, PCT at 4, and Europe, India and South Korea at 3 apiece — filing strategy is regionally fragmented rather than globally consolidated.
- No single assignee shows positive momentum every tracked filer, including established names, recorded zero families in the latest year — a sign the field is between waves, not accelerating.
What the blue hydrogen patent record actually shows
Blue hydrogen — hydrogen produced from natural gas via steam methane reforming or autothermal reforming with carbon capture bolted on — sits at the intersection of established reforming chemistry and newer capture-integration engineering. The dataset behind this page covers 43 patent families filed between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, concentrated almost entirely under the C01B non-metallic-elements subclass, with secondary claim activity in separation (B01D), catalysis (B01J) and fuel-cell-adjacent filings (H01M).
Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 will understate real activity, because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Treat the tail of the trend line as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 43-family dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how it splits across IPC subclasses.
A single peak, no sustained climb
Filings were flat at zero through 2017, then built toward a peak of 17 families in 2022 before falling back. The midpoint-year count matching the peak indicates the growth phase front-loaded onto a narrow window rather than compounding steadily — later years show no evidence of a second wave, even accounting for publication lag.
Reforming chemistry dominates; capture and materials trail
C01B carries every record in this set by definition of the search, but the secondary subclasses show where engineering effort actually spreads: separation processes (B01D, 8 records) and catalysis (B01J, 6 records) are the largest secondary clusters, followed by smaller pockets in alkali-metal and alkaline-earth compound chemistry (C01D, C01F) and ceramics (C04B). Fuel-cell crossover (H01M, 3 records) is thin, suggesting blue hydrogen production claims and downstream fuel-cell claims are still largely prosecuted separately.
Shares are the percentage of the 43 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Blue Hydrogen Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about blue hydrogen technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings build on
US20240336478A1 — Method for making low carbon intensity hydrogen (IOGEN CORPORATION, filed 2024-10-10)
The application claims a process for obtaining hydrogen from a blue hydrogen production facility that meets a target carbon intensity: generating hydrogen from non-renewable feedstock, capturing and sequestering the fossil CO2 derived from that feedstock, and at least partially powering the process with renewable electricity derived from biomass whose own biogenic carbon output is captured and sequestered.The claim structure ties carbon-intensity targeting to a specific combination of fossil-CO2 sequestration and biomass-derived renewable power — narrower than a general capture-integration claim.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN101973522A | 一种天然气自热重整制氢的装置 | 24 |
| 2 | CN103693618A | 一种利用汽车尾气余热进行自热重整制氢的制氢反应器 | 15 |
| 3 | WO2023084084A1 | Blue hydrogen process and plant | 5 |
| 4 | WO2024149734A1 | Blue hydrogen process and plant | 2 |
| 5 | CN203625026U | 一种带星型微凸台阵列的层叠自热型醇类制氢微反应器 | 2 |
| 6 | US20240336478A1 | Method for making low carbon intensity hydrogen | 1 |
| 7 | US12264068B2 | Method for making low carbon intensity hydrogen | 1 |
| 8 | US20250010259A1 | Blue hydrogen process and plant | 1 |
| 9 | KR1020240019412A | Process for Economic Co-Production of Blue Hydrogen and Acetic Acid Using Switching Reaction System between S… | 1 |
| 10 | CN115072662A | 一种质子交换膜燃料电池热电联产系统及方法 | 1 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on prior art, not as a ranking of current relevance.
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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Three read-throughs from the trend, the geography and the citation data.
The peak has already passed
Activity climbed to 17 families in 2022 and has not returned to that level since. Combined with zero recorded filings in 2017 and no assignee showing positive year-over-year momentum, the pattern reads as a completed filing wave rather than an emerging one. New entrants now face a claim landscape shaped mostly by 2020-2022 priority dates.
Filing strategy is split, not global
China and the United States together account for 21 of the tracked families, but PCT filings sit at only 4 — well below what a globally-coordinated filing strategy would produce. Europe, India and South Korea each hold 3, indicating regional players are protecting home markets rather than building broad international portfolios.
Influence sits with early reforming patents
The most-cited record in this set, an autothermal reforming device filing, carries 24 citations — well ahead of the next tier. Because citation counts accumulate over time, this concentration says more about which early filings became reference points than about which claims are commercially strongest today.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to blue hydrogen technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| South China University of Technology | Shanxi Institute of Clean Energy, Tsinghua University | 1 |
| South China University of Technology | Tsinghua University | 1 |
| Shanxi Institute of Clean Energy, Tsinghua University | Tsinghua University | 1 |
Only 3 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, each linked to a single shared filing — collaborative filing is the exception, not the pattern, in this field.
Who holds the claims — and where nobody has filed yet
No assignee in this dataset shows filing growth into the most recent year, including established names in reforming and hydrogen production. That flatness across the board, rather than a single dominant leader, is the more useful signal for a newcomer.
Every tracked assignee is flat
From IOGEN Corporation to South Korea's national energy research institute, every assignee with recent-year data recorded zero families in the latest tracked year. This is consistent with the broader trend: the field's active filing window has closed for now, at least in what has published so far.
University-institute pairings dominate collaboration
The strongest co-assignee links connect a South China university, a Tsinghua-affiliated clean energy institute in Shanxi, and Tsinghua University itself — academic-institutional pairing rather than corporate joint filing.
No single jurisdiction dominates
With China, the US, PCT, Europe, India and South Korea all carrying at least 3 filings, protection strategies in blue hydrogen are being built market-by-market rather than through a single dominant filing hub.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Haldor Topsoe | 0 | -100% |
| South China University of Technology | 0 | — |
| Blue Planet Systems Corporation | 0 | — |
| Lotte Chemical Corporation | 0 | — |
| IOGEN CORPORATION | 0 | — |
| Korea Institute of Energy Research | 0 | — |
| Black & Veatch Holding Company | 0 | -100% |
| Council of Scientific and Industrial Research | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to a field between filing waves. Two directions make sense depending on what you're deciding.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top-cited records
The two most-cited filings in this set concentrate around autothermal reforming device architectures. Any new reforming-plus-capture design should be checked against these before committing to a claim strategy.
Explore prior art in EurekaWatch for the next filing wave rather than assuming one has started
With every tracked assignee flat in the latest year and publication lag still working through 2024-2026 priority dates, the real test of renewed momentum will show up in filings not yet published.
Track assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions about blue hydrogen patents
In this dataset, blue hydrogen filings centre on producing hydrogen from natural gas via steam methane reforming or autothermal reforming, combined with capturing the resulting CO2 rather than releasing it. The search covers IPC classes for non-metallic-element production (C01B), separation processes (B01D) and catalysis (B01J), which together capture the reforming-plus-capture combination that distinguishes blue hydrogen from grey hydrogen. Filings that only cover reforming without any capture integration language are generally excluded.
The dataset shows filing spread across corporate, academic and national-institute assignees rather than a single dominant leader, including IOGEN Corporation, South Korea's national energy research institute, and Chinese university groups. Notably, no assignee shows positive filing momentum in the most recent tracked year, so leadership in this space is currently defined more by accumulated portfolio and citation influence than by recent filing volume. Co-filing is rare, with only three co-assignee pairs recorded across all 43 families.
Filings climbed to a peak of 17 families in 2022 before falling back in subsequent years, based on the tracked data through the 2026 cut-off. Some of that apparent decline is a publication-lag artefact, since patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing, meaning 2024-2026 counts are understated. Even allowing for that lag, the absence of any assignee showing renewed year-over-year growth suggests the initial claim-staking wave has genuinely slowed rather than merely being under-reported.
The secondary IPC subclasses in this dataset carry far fewer records than the core reforming category: separation (B01D, 8 records), catalysis (B01J, 6), alkali and alkaline-earth compound chemistry (C01D and C01F, 4 and 3), ceramics (C04B, 3), and fuel-cell crossover (H01M, 3). Areas like ceramic membrane purification, sorbent-based capture media and fuel-cell-integrated reforming interfaces show comparatively thin claim density, which is where a well-drafted first claim has more room to stand without colliding with existing prior art.
China leads as a receiving office with 12 filings, followed by the United States with 9, then PCT applications at 4, and Europe, India and South Korea each at 3. The relatively low PCT count relative to national filings suggests most assignees are protecting home or primary markets individually rather than pursuing broad multi-jurisdiction coverage through a single international filing route.
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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.