Chemical & Feedstock Recycling Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- 76.8% concentration. The top five assignees account for 43 of the 56 records in scope — filing is concentrated at the top, with a long tail of single-digit and single-filing entrants.
- +200% filing growth. Filings rose from 1 in 2021 to 3 in 2024, the last year the trend can be treated as complete before publication lag understates the count.
- Separation and sorting sit apart from conversion chemistry. Wet separation, magnetic/electrostatic separation and sieving each cover under a fifth of records, well behind the acyclic-compound and metal-extraction classes that dominate claim space.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 56 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Chemical and feedstock recycling sits at the intersection of waste processing and process chemistry: it covers turning mixed plastic, shredder residue or metal-bearing waste streams back into usable feedstock rather than simply diverting them from landfill. The 56 records in scope span material separation, sorting, and the downstream conversion chemistry that produces a secondary product or recycled feedstock. Patent families, not raw document counts, are the more reliable unit here because they neutralise repeat filing by the same applicant across jurisdictions.
Filing has moved unevenly: a small number of assignees hold most of the record base, receiving offices skew toward the United States and Europe, and the IPC composition shows conversion chemistry (C07C) ahead of the mechanical separation and sorting classes (B03B, B03C, B07B) that feed it. That split is the first thing to check before assuming a sorting-stage claim is safe to file.
Filing trend and technology composition
The trend and class breakdown below are drawn directly from the 56 records in scope; publication lag means the most recent year is always undercounted relative to actual filing activity.
A three-year growth run, then a lag-affected tail
Filings climbed from 1 in 2021 to 3 in 2024 — a +200% rise over that span — before reaching a peak of 6 in 2025. Because publications lag filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures will keep revising upward and should not be read as a slowdown.
Conversion chemistry leads, separation stages trail
C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) appears in 39.3% of the 56 records, well ahead of B09B and C22B at 21.4% each. The separation and sorting classes — B03B, B03C, B07B and B29B — each sit at 17.9%, indicating the mechanical front end of the recycling chain is claimed less densely than the chemistry that follows it.
Shares are the percentage of the 56 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Chemical & Feedstock Recycling Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about chemical & feedstock recycling patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records and a representative recent filing
EP4482078A1 — feedstock property monitoring for chemical production networks
Filed by BASF SE and published 2024-12-25, this application addresses monitoring, registering and attributing properties of feedstock entering a chemical production network — a data and traceability layer sitting alongside physical recycling processes rather than a conversion or separation method itself.Abstract condensed from the original filing language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190284476A1 | System and process for converting plastic waste to oil products | 31 |
| 2 | US20040251335A1 | Unit and method for the treatment of shredder residues | 21 |
| 3 | US7389880B2 | Unit and method for processing of shredder residues and uses of a sand fraction produced thus | 17 |
| 4 | US8267336B2 | System and method for treating shredder residues and use of a granulate fraction thus produced | 13 |
| 5 | US20070158242A1 | System and method for treating shredder residues and utilizing a produced fiber fraction | 10 |
| 6 | WO2018085934A1 | System and process for converting plastic waste to oil products | 9 |
| 7 | US20130178643A1 | Isocyanates and Aromatic Hydroxy Compounds | 8 |
| 8 | US20100274047A1 | Process for producing of isocyanates and aromatic hydroxy compounds | 5 |
| 9 | US20110319648A1 | Isocyanates and Aromatic Hydroxy Compounds | 4 |
| 10 | EP2213658A1 | Method for production of isocyanate and aromatic hydroxy compound | 4 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not of current commercial weight.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the data means for a filing decision
Three patterns matter more than the headline count: where filings concentrate, how citation weight sits on older shredder-residue processing patents, and how thin the receiving-office spread is outside the largest markets.
Filing is concentrated, not fragmented
43 of the 56 records in scope belong to the top five assignees, with the leader alone holding 16. That leaves a long tail of single- or double-filing entrants rather than a broad competitive middle.
Older shredder-residue and pyrolysis filings anchor the field
The most-cited records concern converting plastic waste to oil and processing shredder residues, several dating well before the recent filing surge. Their citation counts reflect years of accumulation inside this corpus rather than current commercial dominance.
US and EPO dominate, India and Canada trail
The United States receives the most filings (18), ahead of the EPO (9) and WIPO/PCT (8); Canada, Japan and India each sit at single digits. A filing strategy built only around US and EU coverage would miss the smaller but present India-origin activity.
Growth is real but recent years understate it
The complete-year trend shows filings tripling from 2021 to 2024. Because publication lag affects 2025-2026, the true trajectory beyond 2024 is still forming and should not yet be called a peak or a decline.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to chemical & feedstock recycling patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground
The ranked assignee list covers 21 companies and individual filers — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the full ranking the dataset returns. One applicant holds a clear lead position; most of the rest hold a handful of records each.
A single assignee holds the largest single block
The leading assignee's 16 records account for close to a third of all 56 in scope on their own, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee's 3. That gap is the clearest signal of where the strongest prior-art position sits.
Most ranked filers hold only one or two records
Beyond the leading cluster, filing drops off quickly: the ranking includes individual inventors and smaller technology developers alongside the larger corporate names, each with a thin but present filing history.
Co-assignment is limited to a few working pairs
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset links two individual filers across three shared records — a narrow pattern rather than a sign of broad industry collaboration.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation | 0 | — |
| Volkswagen AG | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | -100% |
| CAP III | 0 | — |
| Asahi Kasei Corporation | 0 | — |
| HANDA JANAK H | 0 | — |
| GABER HOSSAM | 0 | — |
| MICHIGAN TECH FUND | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe where the field stands today. Turning that into a filing or licensing decision means checking claim scope against the specific process route in question.
Map a specific process route against the leader's claim set
Before filing in conversion chemistry or shredder-residue processing, check the leading assignee's granted claims against the exact feedstock and process step you plan to cover.
Explore this landscape in EurekaWatch the under-claimed separation and sorting branches
Wet separation, magnetic/electrostatic sorting and sieving each sit below 20% of records — worth monitoring for new entrants before the space fills in.
Track new filings in EurekaCommon questions on chemical and feedstock recycling patents
Filing is concentrated: the top five assignees together hold 43 of the 56 records in scope, or 76.8% of the field, with a single leading assignee holding 16 records on its own. Beyond the top ten, who together hold 94.6% of records, the remaining filers each hold only one or two records. This means a freedom-to-operate check should start with the leading assignee's portfolio rather than treating the field as evenly spread.
Filings grew from 1 in 2021 to 3 in 2024, a +200% increase over that span, and the dataset shows a peak of 6 filings in 2025. However, publication lags actual filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 counts will keep rising as more filings publish; they should not yet be read as a plateau or decline.
Acyclic and carbocyclic compound chemistry (IPC class C07C) appears in 39.3% of the 56 records, ahead of solid waste disposal and metal extraction, each at 21.4%. Mechanical separation and sorting classes — wet separation, magnetic/electrostatic separation, sieving and plastics preparation — each sit at 17.9%, showing the front-end sorting stages are claimed less densely than the downstream conversion chemistry.
The under-claimed branches sit in the mechanical front end of the recycling chain: wet separation for feedstock purification, magnetic and electrostatic sorting of mixed residue, sand and granulate fraction recovery, and sieving-stage yield optimisation, each covering under a fifth of the 56 records in scope. A feedstock traceability or monitoring layer, as seen in the representative BASF filing, is also thinly covered relative to the physical conversion chemistry.
The highest-cited record, US20190284476A1, covers a system and process for converting plastic waste to oil products and carries 31 citations within this corpus. Several of the other most-cited records concern shredder-residue processing and separation into sand or fiber fractions. High citation counts here reflect years of accumulated references inside a searched corpus rather than a signal that the underlying technology is currently the most active area of filing.
Research Chemical & Feedstock Recycling Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole chemical & feedstock recycling patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.