Carbon Utilization Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- One assignee at 102 filings sits well clear of a field where fifth place holds only 27 and tenth place 20 — concentration up top, a long tail below.
- Filing activity peaked in 2021 at 55 and had eased to 39 by 2024, a -29% move over that span; 2025-2026 figures are still filling in under publication lag.
- C01B inorganic-compound claims touch 38.4% of the 829 records in scope while adjacent gasification and catalysis classes each sit under 23%, marking where claim density is heaviest and where it thins out.
Filing growth compares 2021 (55 records) with 2024 (39) — 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 829 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the carbon utilization and conversion patent record shows
The dataset covers 829 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, drawn from a search string that ties carbon utilization and conversion terms to process-level language — capture efficiency, sorbent regeneration, storage integrity, injection wells. That combination means the corpus sits at the intersection of chemical conversion routes and the capture-and-storage infrastructure that feeds them, rather than either domain alone.
Filing offices skew toward the United States (244 records), with Europe, WIPO/PCT and Canada each carrying meaningful volume behind it. Family counts, not raw document counts, are used for the assignee ranking, which keeps continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates from inflating any single company’s position.
Read together, the technology composition and the assignee concentration point to a field where a handful of players have built dense claim positions in core conversion chemistry, while gasification, purification and catalysis classes carry comparatively lighter coverage — the areas worth checking first before assuming freedom to operate.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 829-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density today.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 15 in 2017 to a peak of 55 in 2021, then eased to 39 by 2024 — a -29% move across that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to revise upward as publications catch up with filing dates roughly 18 months behind.
IPC subclass composition
C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) touches 38.4% of the 829 records, ahead of C10J gasification at 22.0% and C07C acyclic/carbocyclic compounds at 20.6%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to more than 100% and should be read against the 829-record total, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 829 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Carbon Utilization & Conversion Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about carbon utilization & conversion patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Processes and systems for producing hydrocarbon fuels having high carbon conversion efficiency
The disclosure describes processes and systems for producing fuels from biomass with high carbon conversion efficiency, using a specific combination of components, process flows and recycle streams to reach conversion efficiency above 95% with minimal greenhouse gas in the flue gas. The system reuses water and carbon dioxide generated within the process and draws on renewable energy for some components.Filed by DG FUELS, LLC, published 2023-04-20 as US20230119589A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2000011208A1 | Rapid quantitative analysis of proteins or protein function in complex mixtures | 315 |
| 2 | US6441277B1 | Expression of fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase in transgenic plants | 228 |
| 3 | US6716474B2 | Expression of fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase in transgenic plants | 212 |
| 4 | US6663906B2 | Expression of fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase in transgenic plants | 211 |
| 5 | US20170341942A1 | Methods and systems for large scale carbon dioxide utilization from lake KIVU via a co2 industrial utilizatio… | 208 |
| 6 | US6110979A | Utilization of synthesis gas produced by mixed conducting membranes | 205 |
| 7 | US6670194B1 | Rapid quantitative analysis of proteins or protein function in complex mixtures | 173 |
| 8 | US6048472A | Production of synthesis gas by mixed conducting membranes | 167 |
| 9 | US20090020456A1 | System comprising the gasification of fossil fuels to process unconventional oil sources | 157 |
| 10 | US5353721A | Pulse combusted acoustic agglomeration apparatus and process | 157 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus — treat them as a signal of historical influence, not of which claims matter most today.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and momentum figures mean
Three cuts of the same data — who holds the most filings, how fast the field grew, and where recent activity has gone quiet.
The top of the field is concentrated, the rest is a long tail
The top 5 assignees combined hold 219 records, 26.4% of the 829 in scope, and the top 10 hold 334, or 40.3%. The leader alone accounts for 102 filings against a fifth-place figure of 27 and a tenth-place figure of 20 — a steep drop-off that leaves most of the ranked field holding modest, single-digit-growth positions.
Volume has come down from its 2021 peak, not stopped
Filings hit 55 in 2021, the highest point in the trend, then declined to 39 by 2024 — a -29% move. That is a real pullback from peak, but 2024 is the last year that can be treated as complete; 2025-2026 counts will still rise as publication catches up with filing dates.
Core chemistry classes carry more weight than downstream processing
C01B leads the composition at 38.4% of the 829 records, ahead of gasification (C10J, 22.0%) and acyclic/carbocyclic compounds (C07C, 20.6%). Separation processes (B01D) and catalysis (B01J) sit further back at 18.1% and 12.5% respectively, suggesting downstream separation and catalytic steps are less densely claimed than the core conversion chemistry.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to carbon utilization & conversion patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Expander Energy | KRESNYAK STEVE | 3 |
| GreatPoint Energy | RAPPAS ALKIS S | 3 |
| Praxair Technology, Inc. | Kobayashi Co., Ltd. | 3 |
| Praxair Technology, Inc. | VAN HASSEL BART A | 3 |
| Praxair Technology, Inc. | SHAH MINISH MAHENDRA | 3 |
| Praxair Technology, Inc. | JAMAL AQIL | 3 |
| Praxair Technology, Inc. | DRNEVICH RAYMOND FRANCIS | 3 |
| Praxair Technology, Inc. | CHRISTIE GERVASE MAXWELL | 3 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, each linked by 3 shared filings — a modest but consistent signal of named-inventor collaboration sitting alongside corporate assignees rather than displacing them.
Who is filing, and who has gone quiet
The assignee ranking separates a small set of active filers from a much larger group whose recent-year activity has dropped to zero.
One assignee holds roughly four times the fifth-place total
The leading assignee's 102 records dwarf the fifth-place figure of 27 and the tenth-place figure of 20, marking a filing position built up well ahead of the rest of the ranked field.
A tight mid-field behind the leader
Positions five through ten cluster between 20 and 27 records apiece, a much narrower spread than the gap separating them from the top spot — this is where competitive filing activity is most contested.
Several established filers show zero activity in the latest year
A number of assignees with substantial historical filings, including some with -100% year-over-year change, show no filings in the most recent year captured. Given the 18-month publication lag, some of this is measurement artefact rather than a genuine stop in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company | 0 | — |
| Eastman Chemical Company | 0 | -100% |
| Expander Energy | 0 | — |
| Acetex (Cyprus) Limited | 0 | — |
| Mfg & Tech Conversion International | 0 | — |
| Infinium Technology LLC | 0 | -100% |
| GreatPoint Energy | 0 | — |
| Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape figures point to where claim density sits and where it thins — the next step is testing a specific concept or filing position against that map.
Check a concept against the white space
Sub-areas like sorbent regeneration cycling and storage-integrity monitoring show lighter claim density than the corpus core — worth a focused search before assuming the space is clear.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack the assignees with active recent filings
Momentum figures separate assignees still filing from those whose activity has gone quiet — useful for prioritising competitive monitoring over a static ranking.
Set up monitoring in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on carbon utilization and conversion patents
One assignee leads the ranked field with 102 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 27 and the tenth-ranked at 20. The top 5 assignees combined hold 219 records, 26.4% of the 829 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 334, or 40.3%. Below that top tier, the ranking spreads out into a long tail of assignees with much smaller filing counts, so a single leader does not mean the field lacks room for new entrants.
Filings rose from 15 in 2017 to a peak of 55 in 2021, then declined to 39 by 2024, a -29% move over that three-year span. That is a genuine pullback from the 2021 peak, though it should not be read as the field going cold: 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as complete, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months and 2025-2026 counts will keep revising upward.
C01B, covering non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds, appears in 38.4% of the 829 records in scope, the highest share of any IPC subclass tracked. Gasification of fuels (C10J) follows at 22.0% and acyclic/carbocyclic compounds (C07C) at 20.6%, with separation processes and catalysis further behind. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages sum to more than 100% and are best read individually against the full record count rather than against each other.
The IPC composition figures show separation processes (B01D, 18.1%) and catalysis (B01J, 12.5%) carrying noticeably less claim density than core conversion chemistry classes like C01B and C10J. Sorbent regeneration cycling, CO2 stream purification tied to injection-well readiness, and storage-integrity monitoring for transported streams are specific sub-areas within those lighter classes worth a dedicated freedom-to-operate check before committing to a filing strategy there.
The United States leads with 244 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 127 and the WIPO/PCT route at 107. Canada, Australia and India follow with 83, 61 and 49 records respectively. This distribution suggests the US and Europe remain the primary battlegrounds for this technology, with PCT filings indicating many applicants are still pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection rather than committing to a single market.
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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.