Coke Quality Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 22 records and has not returned to that level since, with 2021's 6 filings falling to 2 by 2024 — a 67% drop across that span.
- The top 5 assignees hold 46.0% of all 174 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 66.1% — concentration builds fast past the leader.
- India edges out the United States as the leading receiving office (36 vs 35 records), ahead of Europe, WIPO, Canada and Australia.
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 174 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent filings at the intersection of metallurgical coke quality — strength, reactivity, size stability, ash chemistry — and blast furnace performance factors such as deadman permeability and solution loss reaction behaviour. The search spans coal blend design through to furnace-level coke testing, capturing both upstream coking process patents and downstream ironmaking claims that depend on coke properties.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, with 174 published records forming the basis of the ranking, trend and technology composition figures on this page. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years understate actual filing activity.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 174 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims sit in.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a step down
Filings hit 22 in 2017, the peak across the covered window, then declined through subsequent years. Using 2021 to 2024 as the last complete comparison, filings fell from 6 to 2 — a 67% drop. 2025 and later are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as continued decline.
Where the claims concentrate: iron production and coke processing
C21B (iron production, blast furnace) and C10B (coke and destructive distillation) are the two largest classes, each covering more than a third of the 174 records (37.4% and 36.2% respectively). C10L (fuels) follows at 21.8%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum past 100% — the smaller classes such as C10J (gasification, 2.9%) mark the thinnest-filed adjacent branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 174 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Coke Quality and Blast Furnace Performance with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about coke quality and blast furnace performance and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this space
CA2972887C — Multi-modal beds of coking material
The patent covers combining a first particulate material of one size and bulk density with a second particulate material of a different size and bulk density to form a multi-modal coking bed, engineered so the combined bulk density exceeds what a simple linear blend of the two materials would predict.Filed by SunCoke Technology and Development LLC; granted 2022-10-18.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7785447B2 | Clean production of coke | 94 |
| 2 | US20030057083A1 | Clean production of coke | 89 |
| 3 | WO2011143718A1 | Biochar-coke produced in an energy efficient manner | 85 |
| 4 | US3928023A | Method of treating off gases from iron processes | 57 |
| 5 | US20080116052A1 | Clean production of coke | 46 |
| 6 | US10968395B2 | Multi-modal beds of coking material | 37 |
| 7 | US20220056342A1 | Multi-modal beds of coking material | 36 |
| 8 | US20160186065A1 | Multi-modal beds of coking material | 36 |
| 9 | US10975311B2 | Multi-modal beds of coking material | 36 |
| 10 | US10975310B2 | Multi-modal beds of coking material | 35 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and favour older filings; they signal influence on later claims, not current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
Three read-throughs from the ranking, trend and citation data that matter for freedom-to-operate and prioritisation decisions.
Filing is concentrated but not locked up
The top 5 assignees account for 46.0% of the 174 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 66.1%. That leaves roughly a third of the field spread across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants, which is where openings for new entrants are more likely to sit.
Peak activity was 2017, not the present
Filing peaked at 22 records in 2017 and has trended down since; the 2021-to-2024 comparison shows a 67% decline. Because 2025 onward is still filling in under an 18-month publication lag, this should be read as a step down from an earlier peak rather than a live collapse.
Citation weight sits with older 'clean coke' filings
The most-cited records in the corpus, led by a 94-citation clean-coke production patent, date from earlier in the window. High citation counts here reflect age and influence on the field's vocabulary rather than current filing priority.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to coke quality and blast furnace performance, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and what remains open
The ranked leaders span integrated steelmakers, coking process specialists and research institutes; momentum among the named leaders has largely flattened in the latest year.
One assignee well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 22 records, noticeably ahead of fifth place at 9 and tenth place at 5 — a steep drop-off that marks a genuine leader rather than a crowded top tier.
A wide base below the top 10
With the top 10 combined holding 66.1% of records, over a third of filings sit with assignees outside that group — evidence of continued entry rather than a fully closed field.
Named leaders show no latest-year filings
Several of the most active historical assignees, including integrated steelmakers and coking specialists, show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Given the publication lag, this likely reflects incomplete recent data rather than an actual halt in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| JFE Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Paul Wurth S.A. | 0 | -100% |
| SunCoke Technology and Development LLC | 0 | — |
| Nippon Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Ekomatter IP Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| Council of Scientific and Industrial Research | 0 | — |
| Tata Steel Limited | 0 | — |
| JSW Steel Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white space scouting or competitor tracking.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on multi-modal bed claims
CA2972887C and related coking-bed filings define a specific bulk-density approach; any coal blend or particulate sizing programme should be checked against this claim scope before development proceeds.
Explore in EurekaTrack the long tail for emerging entrants
With 34% of records held outside the top 10 assignees, new filers are still entering; a recurring watch on new applicants can surface competitive moves before they scale.
Set up monitoring in EurekaAssess the under-claimed branches
Gasification-linked reactivity and deadman permeability sensing carry lighter filing density than the core C21B/C10B classes — worth a deeper claim-by-claim review before committing R&D spend there.
Analyse white space in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The ranking covers 46 assignees across 174 published records, with the leader holding 22 records — well ahead of fifth place at 9 and tenth place at 5. The field includes integrated steelmakers, coking process technology firms and public research institutes. The top 5 combined account for 46.0% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 66.1%, so leadership is concentrated but a substantial long tail of smaller filers remains active.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 22 records and has declined since; comparing the last two complete years available, 2021's 6 filings dropped to 2 by 2024, a 67% fall. However, patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of an ongoing collapse. The honest read is a step down from a 2017 peak rather than a currently accelerating decline.
CA2972887C, assigned to SunCoke Technology and Development LLC and granted in 2022, claims a multi-modal bed of coking material formed by combining two particulate materials of different sizes and bulk densities. The claimed benefit is an optimized combined bulk density exceeding what a simple linear blend of the two components would predict. Anyone designing coal blend charging strategies with mixed particle sizing should review this claim's specific scope before finalising a process.
India leads as a receiving office with 36 records, narrowly ahead of the United States at 35, followed by Europe (EPO) at 20, WIPO/PCT filings at 16, Canada at 12 and Australia at 9. This spread suggests filers are pursuing protection across multiple major steelmaking and equipment markets rather than concentrating in a single jurisdiction.
The two dominant IPC classes are C21B (iron production/blast furnace, 37.4% of records) and C10B (coke and destructive distillation, 36.2%), with C10L (fuels) at 21.8%. Smaller classes such as C10J (gasification of fuels, 2.9%) and C22B (metal extraction, 4.0%) carry far less filing density, marking them as comparatively open branches for new claims, particularly where they intersect with coke reactivity or ash chemistry.
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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.