Chemical & Process Engineering Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- 15.9% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 2,817 of 17,682 records in scope, a modest lead rather than a lock on the field.
- Filing has pulled back, not collapsed. Filings ran 572 in 2021 to 458 in 2024, a 20% decline over that span, against a 2018 peak of 812.
- Separation and catalysis dominate the claim space. C07C and B01D together touch more than half of all records, leaving reaction-engineering niches comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (572 records) with 2024 (458) — 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 17,682 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the filing record shows
Chemical and process engineering patenting spans reaction engineering, distillation, membrane separations, process intensification and process safety — a search scope built to capture the operational core of chemical manufacturing rather than downstream product chemistry alone. Across 17,682 records published between 2015 and mid-2026, the field shows a familiar pattern for mature process industries: a handful of large chemical and refining companies file steadily, while a long tail of single- or few-filing entities files opportunistically around specific equipment or catalyst designs.
Filing volume peaked in 2018 and has since eased, though the most recent two years are still filling in as publications catch up with filings made roughly 18 months earlier. Read the trend for direction, not for a final count on 2025 or 2026.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 17,682 records: how filing volume has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing volume, 2017–2026
Filings rose to a peak of 812 in 2018, then eased to 536 by 2017-level comparisons and further to 458 by 2024 — a 20% decline from 572 in 2021. The final two years in the chart are undercounted because publication lags filing by around 18 months.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) touches 37.0% of all records and B01D (separation processes) touches 20.1%, together anchoring more than half the field. Catalysis (B01J, 16.5%) and refining (C10G, 9.3%) follow, with polymer, heterocyclic and gas-separation classes each under 10% — since records can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 17,682 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Chemical & Process Engineering Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about chemical & process engineering patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
WO2018198050A2 — Chemical process intensification design through modeling and additive manufacturing
The filing describes a method of chemical process intensification that designs a process component through modeling with dimensionless numbers: identifying the inter-relationship between chemical process engineering parameters and subcomponent structures, weighting a set of dimensionless numbers against a processing function, and simulating combinations of subcomponent designs to score and select an optimised configuration.Filed by SABIC Global Technologies, published 2018-11-01. The abstract is truncated in the underlying record.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2005090427A2 | Catalyst composition comprising shuttling agent for ethylene multi-block copolymer formation | 1,178 |
| 2 | US20190339688A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for analytics and mainten… | 974 |
| 3 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 860 |
| 4 | WO2005090426A1 | Catalyst composition comprising shuttling agent for higher olefin multi-block copolymer formation | 764 |
| 5 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 6 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 7 | US7005541B2 | Low water methanol carbonylation process for high acetic acid production and for water balance control | 674 |
| 8 | US6509180B1 | Process for producing ethanol | 639 |
| 9 | US20180284758A1 | Methods and systems for industrial internet of things data collection for equipment analysis in an upstream o… | 600 |
| 10 | US5065775A | Tobacco processing | 591 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus — treat them as a signal of influence, not of current commercial relevance.
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The ranking covers 100 companies, not a top-50 or top-100 cut — it is the whole assignee list the dataset returns, and it shows a field that is broad but not wide open.
Leadership is present but not dominant
The leading assignee holds 782 records and fifth place holds 368; the top 5 combined account for 15.9% of all records in scope, and the top 10 add up to 23.3%. That leaves roughly three-quarters of the corpus outside the leading ten filers, which for a process-engineering field this broad means white space exists even in adjacency to established players.
Volume has cooled from its 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 812 in 2018 and declined to 458 by 2024, a 20% drop from the 572 filed in 2021. Several of the most active historical filers show sharp year-on-year pullbacks in the latest tracked year, though that year is still incomplete in the data.
Separation and base chemistry carry the claim density
C07C and B01D together are the two largest IPC subclasses in the set, reflecting how much of process-engineering patenting still centres on core carbocyclic chemistry and separation equipment rather than the newer process-intensification or digital-monitoring branches named in the search scope.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to chemical & process engineering patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the crowd thins out
Large integrated chemical, refining and catalyst companies anchor the ranked leaders, but the co-assignee pattern and the drop-off after the top ten point to a field still open to focused entrants.
Integrated producers file broadly across the scope
The leading assignee's filings span multiple IPC subclasses rather than concentrating in one, consistent with a diversified chemical producer protecting process know-how across several product lines at once.
A second tier files at roughly half the leader's volume
The gap between first and fifth place is wide enough that fifth place alone still represents meaningful, sustained filing activity, not a single opportunistic entry.
Co-filing is limited and concentrated on one entity
Only ten co-assignee pairs are tracked, and the strongest pairs all involve the same organisation filing jointly with named individual inventors, suggesting most patenting here is done by single corporate assignees rather than joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| BASF SE | 8 | -64% |
| Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Ltd | 4 | -50% |
| Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016 LLC | 1 | -75% |
| Celanese International Corp | 0 | — |
| Dow Global Technologies LLC | 0 | — |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co | 0 | — |
| UOP LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Air Products & Chemicals Inc | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing or new filing strategy.
Check freedom to operate in under-claimed branches
Process analytical technology and membrane module geometry carry lower claim density than the core C07C and B01D classes — worth a targeted search before committing engineering resources there.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the leaders' recent filing pullback
Several top assignees show sharp year-on-year declines in the latest tracked year; confirming whether that is a genuine slowdown or a publication-lag artefact matters before reading it as an opening.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by record count, led by a company holding 782 records with the fifth-ranked assignee at 368. Together the top 5 hold 15.9% of all 17,682 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 23.3% — a real but not overwhelming concentration. That leaves most of the corpus outside the leading ten filers, spread across a long tail of companies and individual filers.
Filing volume peaked at 812 records in 2018 and has since declined, falling from 572 in 2021 to 458 in 2024 — a 20% drop over that three-year span. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any chart are undercounted and should not yet be read as continued decline. 2024 is the most recent year that can reasonably be treated as complete.
C07C, covering acyclic and carbocyclic compounds, appears in 37.0% of the 17,682 records in scope, and B01D, separation processes, appears in 20.1%. Catalysis-related B01J follows at 16.5%, with hydrocarbon refining, inorganic compounds, polymers, heterocyclic chemistry and gas separation each below 10%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares sum to more than 100%, so they should be read as coverage rates, not as a breakdown of a whole.
Sub-areas named in the search scope but carrying comparatively thin claim density relative to C07C and B01D include process analytical technology instrumentation, modular process-intensification units, and membrane separation module geometry. These are not empty fields, but they see far less filing pressure than core carbocyclic chemistry or bulk separation equipment, which makes them worth a targeted prior-art check before committing to a design direction.
WO2018198050A2, filed by SABIC Global Technologies and published in 2018, claims a method of chemical process intensification that uses dimensionless-number modeling to design process components: it identifies relationships between process parameters and subcomponent structures, weights the relevant dimensionless numbers, and simulates multiple subcomponent design combinations to score and select an optimised configuration. Anyone building a simulation-driven process-intensification design workflow around dimensionless-number scoring should review this filing's claim scope before proceeding, since it sits directly in that design methodology.
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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.