Cobalt & Nickel Refining Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2022 at five records and has not been matched since, suggesting the field's most active claim-staking window may already be behind it.
- The top five assignees hold 52.4% of all 21 records in scope while a further set of filers takes the top ten to 76.2%, leaving a thin tail beyond that.
- China dominates the filing venue, with 14 of the records filed there against a scattering across Europe, Russia, the PCT route and Australia.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity at the intersection of cobalt refining and nickel sulfate production for battery-grade output, spanning routes from high pressure acid leaching and MHP/matte feedstock processing through solvent extraction separation to final crystallization. The scope is narrow by design: it targets impurity-specification-grade output rather than upstream mining or downstream cathode synthesis, and it is built around C22B23, C22B3 and C01G53 classifications.
Across the 2015-to-2026 window, 21 published records sit inside this scope, examined here as a set of patent families rather than raw filing counts so continuation and multi-jurisdiction effects do not distort the picture. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent year understates real activity.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 21 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those records distribute across IPC subclasses.
A flat-to-declining trend since the 2022 peak
Filings opened this window at 1 in 2017 and rose to a peak of 5 in 2022 before tapering off toward the 2026 cut-off, which is still partial. With the midpoint year matching the peak, the trend reads as flat or declining rather than accelerating — this is a mature, narrowly claimed process space rather than a fast-growing one.
C01G and B01D dominate the classification mix
C01G (compounds of other metals) appears on 76.2% of the 21 records, and B01D (separation processes) on 52.4%, confirming that most filings are claiming compound-purification and separation chemistry rather than bulk metal extraction — C22B itself covers only 28.6% of records. Smaller shares in C01B, C01D, B65G and C25F mark adjacent process steps that are claimed far less often.
Shares are the percentage of the 21 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cobalt and Nickel Refining for Battery Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cobalt and nickel refining for battery materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this space
Production of high purity nickel and cobalt compounds (WO2022236381A1)
A process for separating nickel and/or cobalt salts from crude nickel and/or cobalt bearing materials is disclosed. The process comprises treating a crude nickel and/or cobalt bearing material with a salt of iron or aluminium under conditions to remove at least some of one or more alkali metal ion and/or monovalent cation species as a jarosite / alunite precipitate to provide a solution having a reduced content of one or more alkali metal ion and/or monovalent cation species; and subjecting the solution obtained to increasing pH in a stepwise manner under conditions to provide a feed solution for further purification to produce nickel and/or cobalt salts suitable for the production of batteries.Filed by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, published 2022-11-17.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN108622943A | 一种以废镍钴合金生产电池级硫酸镍和硫酸钴的方法 | 29 |
| 2 | WO2018076993A1 | 电池废料制备硫酸镍、锰、锂、钴及四氧化三钴的方法 | 25 |
| 3 | CN109110826A | 一种电池级硫酸镍的生产方法 | 19 |
| 4 | WO2022236381A1 | Production of high purity nickel and cobalt compounds | 11 |
| 5 | CN108570555A | 一种从镍钴富集物中直接生产电池级硫酸镍的方法 | 11 |
| 6 | CN114853093A | 电池级硫酸镍的制备方法 | 7 |
| 7 | CN113144662A | 硫酸镍冷冻结晶装置 | 4 |
| 8 | CN109110826B | 一种电池级硫酸镍的生产方法 | 3 |
| 9 | CN211836412U | 一种硫酸镍结晶过滤装置 | 2 |
| 10 | RU2100279C1 | Method of isolation of nickel sulfate | 2 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the filing trend, the classification split and the citation table.
The activity window looks past its peak
Filing rose from a single record in 2017 to five in 2022, then eased off toward the 2026 cut-off. Combined with an even midpoint-to-peak reading, this points to a technology area where the core claim space was staked out earlier in the window rather than one still opening up.
Compound purification, not bulk extraction, is where claims sit
Three-quarters of records touch C01G (compounds of other metals) and over half touch B01D (separation processes), while core C22B extraction classification appears on under a third. Applicants are clustering claims around purification chemistry and separation steps rather than the extraction step itself.
A moderately concentrated leaderboard with a long tail
The leading assignee holds 4 records, and the top five combined take just over half of all 21 records in scope. The top ten extend that to 76.2%, meaning the remaining six ranked companies and any unranked filers share a comparatively thin residual.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cobalt and nickel refining for battery materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the openings are
The ranked leaders in this dataset cluster around Chinese process-engineering firms and specialty chemical producers, alongside one research-institute filer with an internationally cited PCT application.
A single filer leads a fragmented field
The top-ranked assignee holds 4 of the 21 records in scope, ahead of a fifth-place filer with a single record and a tenth-place filer also on one record. That gap between the leader and the rest of the ranked field signals an early-mover advantage rather than a settled multi-firm standard.
Filing activity is concentrated in China
Fourteen of the 21 records in scope were filed through the Chinese receiving office, with the remainder split thinly across the EPO, Russia, the PCT route and Australia. Anyone assessing freedom to operate outside China should treat the non-Chinese filings as the higher-value signal given their scarcity.
Co-filing is rare in this space
Only one co-assignee pairing appears across the 21 records, linking a metallurgical research group with a metal-recycling technology partner. Most filings in this dataset are single-assignee, which is typical for closely held process chemistry rather than jointly developed platforms.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | 0 | — |
| Huzhou Huipengda Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Guangxi Yinyi New Materials Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Ningbo Shenhua Specialty Chemical Integration Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Tongling Nonferrous Xingtong Electromechanical Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Chifeng Jintong Copper Industry Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jingmen GEM New Materials Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| BGRIMM Technology Group | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
This landscape identifies the pattern; the next step is testing a specific claim or design-around against the full family set.
Check freedom to operate on a specific process step
If a planned process touches solvent extraction separation or crystallization conditions claimed by the leading assignee, a claim-by-claim comparison against their full family is the next move before committing to a plant design.
Explore this in EurekaTrack the leader's recent filings for early signals
Momentum has flattened across the tracked assignees in the most recent year, but publication lag means newer filings from the top-ranked company may not be visible yet. Monitoring their pipeline closely can surface a shift before competitors react.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
Within this 21-record dataset, one assignee leads with 4 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked and tenth-ranked filers who each hold a single record. The top five assignees combined account for 52.4% of all 21 records in scope, and extending to the top ten raises that to 76.2%. The remaining ranked companies, and any unranked filers, share a comparatively thin tail, which points to moderate but not extreme concentration at the top.
This landscape is built around IPC classes C22B23, C22B3 and C01G53, but the actual classification mix within scope skews toward C01G (compounds of other metals, on 76.2% of records) and B01D (separation processes, on 52.4%). Core C22B extraction classification appears on only 28.6% of records, indicating that most claims target purification and separation chemistry rather than the extraction step itself. Smaller classes such as C01B, C01D, B65G and C25F cover adjacent process steps with far fewer claims.
Filing rose from a single record in 2017 to a peak of five records in 2022, then eased off toward the 2026 cut-off. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final year or two in any trend chart will always look lower than actual filing activity. Even accounting for that lag, the flat-to-declining pattern since 2022 suggests this is a maturing process space rather than one still accelerating.
China accounts for 14 of the 21 records in scope, making it by far the dominant filing venue. The remainder is split thinly across the European Patent Office, Russia, the international PCT route, and Australia, each with only one or two records. That imbalance means non-Chinese filings are comparatively rare and worth closer individual scrutiny for anyone assessing coverage outside China.
The classification data points to several under-claimed branches relative to the core purification chemistry: electrolytic impurity removal, continuous crystallization control, and alkali-metal compound co-recovery all carry noticeably thinner claim density than C01G-based purification or B01D-based separation. A first claim in one of these areas would need to tie a specific feedstock condition, such as MHP-versus-matte switching, to a defined impurity-removal outcome to stand apart from the denser prior art in the core separation classes.
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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.