Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Recycling Patent Landscape
The CFRP recycling patent space is a relatively small, maturing field of 68 patent families, led by a specialist recycler (ELG Carbon Fiber International) and a university (University of Surrey), with pyrolysis-based polymer processing as the dominant technical route. Filing activity has plateaued near its 2018 peak on an annual basis, though multi-year growth remains positive at 21%, and China has emerged as the leading filing jurisdiction.
ELG Carbon Fiber International leads a fragmented but consolidating field
ELG Carbon Fiber International holds the top position among the hundred largest filers, followed by the University of Surrey and Toyota Motor Corporation. The top five applicants together account for 28% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, signalling a moderately concentrated upper tier sitting above a long tail of occasional filers.
The tier gap between the leader and the rest is narrow in absolute terms: ELG Carbon Fiber International holds 11 patent records, the University of Surrey 9, and Toyota Motor Corporation 8, reflecting a field where no single actor has achieved dominance. Below the top five, counts drop sharply, confirming a classic thin-tail distribution.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ELG Carbon Fiber International | 11 | |
| 2 | University of Surrey | 9 | |
| 3 | Toyota Motor Corporation | 8 | |
| 4 | Lockheed Martin Energy Systems Inc. | 7 | |
| 5 | Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd. | 7 | |
| 6 | CHZ Technologies LLC | 7 | |
| 7 | Georgia Tech Research Corporation | 6 | |
| 8 | KOREA INST OF SCI & TECH | 5 | |
| 9 | AIRBUS DEFENCE & SPACE GMBH | 5 | |
| 10 | Boeing China Investment Co., Ltd. | 4 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | BEIJING AERONAUTIC SCI & TECH RES INST OF COMAC | 4 | |
| 12 | KUNMING UNIV OF SCI & TECH | 4 | |
| 13 | SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers | 3 | |
| 14 | Sanwa Yuka Industries Co., Ltd. | 3 | |
| 15 | Toray Industries Inc. | 3 | |
| 16 | CHINA PETROLEUM & CHEMICAL CORP | 3 | |
| 17 | Airbus DS GmbH | 3 | |
| 18 | Patentes Talgo S.L.U. | 3 | |
| 19 | Zhifu Environmental Industry (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 20 | ASICS Corporation | 2 |
The presence of aerospace primes (Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed Martin), automotive OEMs (Toyota, Nissin Kogyo), and specialist recyclers (ELG, CHZ Technologies) at the top of the ranking indicates that innovation pressure is coming from both material suppliers and end-of-life managers simultaneously — a pattern typical of a field approaching process standardisation.
The most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag and will undercount current activity; the 2025–2026 figures should be treated as preliminary. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Annual volume has plateaued near the 2018 peak; polymer processing dominates the technology mix
The filing trend and IPC composition together reveal a field that has moved from early growth into a plateau phase, with thermal processing of polymer matrices as the clear technical core and several adjacent branches still sparsely covered.
Annual filing trend
Filings peaked in 2018 and have oscillated rather than trended upward since, consistent with a maturing field. The 2024 uptick to 10 filings and a 2025 figure of 9 are encouraging but must be read cautiously given publication lag; the 2026 value of 0 is not a real signal.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
C08J (Polymer processing & solutions) is by far the largest branch, reflecting the centrality of pyrolysis and solvolysis routes. C08K (Use of additives in polymers) and B29B (Plastics preparation) are the next largest, indicating active interest in re-compounding recovered fibers. Thermal processing branches C10B (Coke & destructive distillation) and F27B (Furnaces & kilns) together signal continued investment in pyrolysis hardware. Lower-count branches such as B09B (Solid waste disposal) and D01F (Chemical filament & fibre features) suggest that end-of-life logistics and recovered-fiber characterisation remain comparatively under-developed.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
A Method for Recovering Carbon Fiber from Carbon F…
Abstract of Description The invention discloses a method for recovering carbon fiber from carbon fiber composite, which comprises the following steps: the carbon fiber composite is soaked in the solution containing oxidant and then dried to obtain the pretreated carbon fiber composite; the carbon fiber composite is sintered in muffle furnace under inert… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
Open this patent in Eureka →| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Method for rapid fabrication of fiber preforms and… | 85 |
| 2 | Pyrolysis assembly and method for the recovery of … | 38 |
| 3 | Regenerating and reusing method for carbon fiber r… | 35 |
| 4 | Production of carbon fiber | 34 |
| 5 | Method for rapid fabrication of fiber preforms and… | 24 |
| 6 | 从含碳纤维的塑料中回收碳纤维的热解系统及方法 | 21 |
| 7 | Method and apparatus for recovering fiber assembly… | 18 |
| 8 | Multistage thermolysis method for safe and efficie… | 15 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment
Four structural signals — maturity stage, concentration, collaboration patterns, and geographic spread — shape where defensible white space remains and where incumbents are already entrenched.
Field is maturing: annual volume has plateaued near its 2018 peak
The lifecycle evidence places CFRP recycling in a Maturity stage, with annual filings oscillating around a plateau rather than climbing. Multi-year growth of 21% shows the field is not in decline, but the window for staking foundational claims in core pyrolysis routes is narrowing. R&D teams entering now should expect to file around existing prior art and will need either process differentiation or coverage in adjacent branches to build defensible positions.
Maturity stageModerate concentration with a long tail of single-filing actors
The top five filers hold 28% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, a moderate concentration level. Below rank five, most applicants hold fewer than five patent records each, suggesting that many organisations are monitoring the space without committing to sustained portfolio-building. This creates an opportunity for a focused entrant to move from the tail to the mid-tier with a targeted filing programme covering under-represented branches.
Moderate concentrationUniversity of Surrey–Astrium partnership is the most active co-filing axis
The strongest co-filing relationship in the corpus is the University of Surrey paired with Astrium Limited, which co-filed 7 patent records — matching the equally active Nissin Kogyo and MEFS partnership (also 7 records). Toyota Motor Corporation and Sanwa Yuka Industries co-filed 3 records, and the University of Surrey also collaborated with Airbus DS GmbH on 2 records. The aerospace-academia axis around Surrey and Astrium/Airbus is the most prominent ecosystem signal, suggesting that aerospace end-of-life concerns are driving structured research collaboration.
Collaboration clustersChina leads filing jurisdiction; US and Europe are close behind
China is the leading jurisdiction by patent-record count, followed by the EPO and the United States at equal counts. Japan and South Korea add further Asia-Pacific coverage. PCT filings are relatively sparse, which may indicate that applicants are prioritising national-phase protection in specific manufacturing markets rather than broad international protection. Entrants planning global freedom to operate should assess EPO and US coverage carefully, as those two jurisdictions together represent a substantial portion of filing activity.
China-led, global spreadGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| University of Surrey | Astrium Ltd. | 7 |
| Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd. | MEFS Co., Ltd. | 7 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Sanwa Yuka Industries Co., Ltd. | 3 |
| University of Surrey | Airbus DS GmbH | 2 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
ELG Carbon Fiber International and University of Surrey lead on divergent technical routes
The top two applicants represent distinct strategic postures: a dedicated recycling specialist focused on thermal and mechanical recovery, and an academic institution whose portfolio centres on polymer surface chemistry and coatings.
ELG Carbon Fiber International
ELG Carbon Fiber International holds 11 patent records, the largest count among the top 100 filers. Its technical emphasis spans soil and contaminated land reclamation (B09C), plastics preparation (B29B), and coke and destructive distillation (C10B) — a profile consistent with end-to-end pyrolysis-based recovery. No momentum data beyond the current ranking is available for this applicant in the evidence.
11 patent recordsUniversity of Surrey
The University of Surrey holds 9 patent records and focuses primarily on polymer processing and surface solutions (C08J) and coatings and inks (C09D), reflecting a chemical-route approach to fiber surface treatment and reuse. Its co-filing partnership with Astrium Limited (7 joint records) and Airbus DS GmbH (2 records) positions it as the academic hub of the aerospace recycling ecosystem. No recent-trend data beyond the current ranking is available in the evidence.
9 patent records| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia Tech Research Corporation | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served adjacent branches worth monitoring
Several IPC branches adjacent to the dominant C08J core have relatively sparse patent coverage, suggesting areas where incumbents have not yet established dense prior-art thickets. These are observations of relative sparsity; technical and commercial viability should be validated independently.
D01F · Chemical filament & fibre features
With 18 patent records, D01F covers the chemical characterisation and specification of recovered carbon filaments — a step that directly determines whether recycled fiber can substitute for virgin fiber in high-performance applications. The relative sparsity here, compared with the dominant polymer-processing branch, suggests that standardising and certifying the quality of recovered fibers has not attracted proportionate filing activity. An entrant with analytical or surface-treatment capabilities could target this branch to build IP around recovered-fiber quality assurance, which is increasingly required by aerospace and automotive supply chains.
Search this in Eureka →B09B · Solid waste disposal
B09B covers the classification and handling of solid composite waste before it enters a recovery process. With only 13 patent records, the upstream logistics and sorting of end-of-life CFRP parts remain comparatively under-developed in the patent literature. As regulatory pressure on composite waste disposal increases — particularly in aviation and wind energy — processes for identifying, segregating, and pre-treating mixed composite waste streams could become a defensible technical niche. Entry here does not require deep chemistry expertise, making it accessible to waste-management or logistics technology firms.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ by technology route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | C08J 11 · Polymer processing & solutions | C08K 7 · Use of additives in polymers | B29B 17 · Plastics preparation | C08J 5 · Polymer processing & solutions | C10B 47 · Coke & destructive distillation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELG Carbon Fiber International | Absent | Absent | Strong · 11 | Absent | Strong · 11 |
| Georgia Tech Research Corporation | Strong · 6 | Strong · 6 | Absent | Strong · 6 | Absent |
| CHZ Technologies LLC | Strong · 6 | Absent | Moderate · 3 | Absent | Strong · 7 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Strong · 7 | Absent | Moderate · 2 | Absent | Absent |
| Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd. | Absent | Absent | Absent | Strong · 8 | Absent |
| Beijing Aeronautic Science & Technology Research Institute of COMAC | Strong · 4 | Strong · 3 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Boeing China Investment Co., Ltd. | Strong · 4 | Strong · 3 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The analysis covers 68 patent families in scope. The filing trend spans from 2017 onwards, with China as the leading jurisdiction by patent-record count.
ELG Carbon Fiber International holds 11 patent records, making it the leading applicant among the top 100 filers. The University of Surrey (9 records) and Toyota Motor Corporation (8 records) rank second and third respectively.
C08J (Polymer processing & solutions) is the largest IPC branch, reflecting the prevalence of pyrolysis and solvolysis routes. C10B (Coke & destructive distillation) also features prominently, confirming that thermal decomposition is the most-patented recovery method.
China leads with the highest patent-record count, followed by Europe (EPO) and the United States at equal counts. Japan and South Korea are the next most active jurisdictions. PCT filings are comparatively sparse.
The field is in a Maturity stage. Annual filings have plateaued near their 2018 peak rather than continuing to climb, though the multi-year growth figure of 21% shows the field is not in decline. The 2025 and 2026 figures are subject to publication lag and should be treated as preliminary.
The University of Surrey and Astrium Limited co-filed 7 patent records together, making them the most active co-filing pair. Nissin Kogyo and MEFS also co-filed 7 records. Toyota Motor Corporation and Sanwa Yuka Industries collaborated on 3 records, and the University of Surrey also worked with Airbus DS GmbH on 2 records.
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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.
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