Polyurethane Foam Recycling Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Chemical Recycling of Polyurethane Foam Patents: Who Holds the Glycolysis and Hydrolysis Claims
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 61.3% of the 31 records in scope, and the ranked 10 account for 100.0% — there is no long tail beyond them in this dataset. Filings rose from 2 records in 2017 to a peak of 9 in 2023, the highest single year in the dataset. The 2026 figure is partial and should not be read as a decline — publication lag means the true count for the most recent year always arrives late.
- 1DOW GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC4
- 2BASF SE4
- 3AIR PROD & CHEM INC4
- 4UNILIN BVBA4
- 5TEKNOLOGISK INSTITUT3
See the full chemical recycling of polyurethane foam analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
How many companies hold patents in polyurethane foam chemical recycling?
The assignee ranking for this dataset returns 14 companies, covering all 31 records in scope. The top 5 alone account for 61.3% of the 31 records, and the ranked 10 account for the full 100.0% — there is no unranked long tail of additional filers beyond this group. This means competitive checks in this space involve a manageable, finite set of parties rather than a sprawling field.
What technical routes do these patents actually cover?
Claims concentrate in polymer processing and solutions (C08J, 83.9% of the 31 records), with a substantial secondary cluster in condensation-polymer chemistry (C08G, 45.2%) and acyclic/carbocyclic compound chemistry (C07C, 38.7%). Smaller pockets cover layered/laminate products, polymer compositions, heterocyclic chemistry and textile treatment. In practice this means most filed claims are about how the recycling process runs — glycolysis or hydrolysis steps, catalyst selection, phase separation — rather than about novel base chemistry.
When did filing activity peak in this field?
Filing rose from 2 records in 2017 to a peak of 9 records in 2023, the highest single year in the dataset. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than declining interest — filings from those years are still working through to publication. Anyone reading the trend chart should treat the most recent one to two years as understated by default.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Chemical Recycling of Polyurethane Foam covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.