Cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing already peaked. Activity crested at 98 families in 2022 and has since declined, with 2026 filings (partial) down to 3 — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- F17C dominates the IPC mix. 344 of 415 families sit in pressure-vessel and gas-storage classifications (F17C), versus 108 in liquefaction (F25J) — vessel design, not liquefaction process, is where the claim density lives.
- The oldest citations still carry the most weight. US5419139A and US4386309A, both pre-2000, out-cite every 21st-century record in this set — a sign the foundational tank and storage geometry was locked in early.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 415 patent families filed against liquid hydrogen and cryogenic hydrogen storage, narrowed to records that explicitly claim boil-off management, vacuum insulation, para-ortho conversion, custody transfer or material embrittlement, and classified under F17C (pressure vessels & gas storage), F17C13 or F25J1 (gas liquefaction). Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the 2025–2026 counts understate real filing activity.
The technology composition points at a vessel-and-handling problem more than a liquefaction-process problem: pressure vessel and gas storage claims (F17C) outnumber liquefaction claims (F25J) by more than three to one, with materials science (C01B), marine transport (B63B), fuel-cell integration (H01M) and pipeline transport (F16L/F17D) forming a secondary tier around the core.
Filing trends and technology mix
Two views of the same 415-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those families split across IPC subclasses.
A peak-and-decline curve, not a growth curve
Filings rose from 7 in 2017 to a peak of 98 in 2022, then declined toward 3 in 2026 (partial year). Read the tail end cautiously — publication lag means the last one to two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — but the 2022 peak and the years of decline since are solid signal that the filing wave associated with early liquid hydrogen infrastructure build-out has largely crested.
Vessel and storage claims dominate
F17C (pressure vessels & gas storage) accounts for 344 of 415 records, roughly 83% of the corpus on a subclass basis, dwarfing F25J (gas liquefaction & separation) at 108. C01B, B63B, H01M, F16L, F17D and F25B form a long secondary tier, each under 50 records, indicating that most of the claimable space in liquefaction chemistry, marine transport integration and pipeline transport is still comparatively open relative to vessel design.
Shares are the percentage of the 415 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen Handling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cryogenic liquid hydrogen handling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings build on
Method for re-liquefying boil-off gas generated at a liquid hydrogen storage tank
Boil-off gas from a liquid hydrogen storage tank on a transport vessel is routed into ground-based liquid hydrogen storage tanks, where at least a portion is re-liquefied using the cold temperature of the stored liquid hydrogen. The gas that is not re-liquefied, along with gasified hydrogen from the ground tanks, is mixed back into the raw material hydrogen supply path rather than vented.Filed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, 2015-03-12
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5419139A | Composite cryogenic tank apparatus | 111 |
| 2 | US4386309A | Storage of liquid hydrogen | 79 |
| 3 | US6834508B2 | Hydrogen storage and supply system | 59 |
| 4 | US20090199574A1 | Hydrogen storage device | 44 |
| 5 | US20150068246A1 | Liquid hydrogen production device | 40 |
| 6 | US20070144183A1 | Liquid fuel storage system | 40 |
| 7 | DE19854581A1 | Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Umwandeln des Boil-Off-Gases von Kryo-Kraftstofftanks | 35 |
| 8 | US2983585A | Preparation of liquid hydrogen | 32 |
| 9 | US3845639A | Relatively rotatable cryogenic transfer system | 31 |
| 10 | US20150068222A1 | Method for re-liquefying boil-off gas generated at liquid hydrogen storage tank | 30 |
Citation counts here reflect influence within this searched corpus, not necessarily current commercial relevance — older records accumulate citations simply by being available longer for others to reference.
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 filing strategy
Three read-outs from the trend, citation and IPC data that matter more for a filing decision than the raw counts do.
The core wave has passed
A filing curve that peaks in 2022 and declines every year after is not a technology still finding its claim space — it's one where the obvious architectures have largely been filed. New entrants competing head-on for basic tank and boil-off geometry claims are filing into dense prior art.
Vessel design is the crowded lane
Pressure vessel and gas storage claims account for the large majority of this corpus. Anyone filing a new vacuum-insulation or tank-geometry claim is filing into the most contested part of the field, not the most open one.
Foundational geometry was set early
The two most-cited records predate 2000 and out-cite every later filing in the set, including records from the 2022 peak year. That pattern usually means the base tank and storage architecture is settled and later filings are refining or working around it rather than replacing it.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cryogenic liquid hydrogen handling, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is thinning out
Recent-year momentum figures below are muted across the board, largely a lag artefact — but the direction, and the near-total absence of co-filing activity, still says something about how consolidated this field is.
Automotive-side filers have gone quiet
Toyota's filing rate dropped to zero in the latest year after a -100% YoY decline, consistent with the broader pattern of large prior filers pulling back once core storage-tank claims were staked out.
Almost no joint filing
Only four co-assignee pairs appear across the entire corpus, and the strongest of them — Air Liquide's process-research arm with Air Liquide USA — is an intra-group pairing rather than a cross-company alliance. Most of the field files solo.
Filing is spread across four major offices
The United States leads receiving-office counts, but China, Europe and Japan each sit within striking distance, and South Korea and WIPO add meaningful volume. No single jurisdiction has cornered filing the way a single assignee has cornered citations.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| CB&I STS Delaware LLC | 1 | -50% |
| Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| L'Air Liquide, Société Anonyme pour l'Étude et l'Exploitation des Procédés Georges Claude | 0 | — |
| Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Hanwha Ocean Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Honda Motor Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| SAES Getters S.p.A. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points at a field with settled core claims and a handful of thinner adjacent branches. The next steps depend on whether you're clearing a design or looking for open ground.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on vessel geometry
Given how concentrated F17C claims are, any new tank or vacuum-insulation design should be checked against the most-cited records before development spend, not after.
Search this space in EurekaMap the under-claimed branches in detail
Custody transfer, para-ortho conversion and marine bunkering insulation show materially lower filing density — worth a dedicated pull before assuming they're crowded too.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The most-cited records in this corpus, US5419139A (Composite cryogenic tank apparatus) and US4386309A (Storage of liquid hydrogen), both predate 2000 and out-cite every later filing, including those from the 2022 peak filing year. That suggests the foundational tank and storage architecture was established early, with more recent assignees such as Kawasaki Heavy Industries filing around boil-off gas handling rather than base vessel design. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should check these older records first, since later filings tend to build on rather than replace them.
No — filing peaked at 98 families in 2022 and has declined every year since, down to 3 in the most recent partial year. Some of that recent drop is publication lag, since filings typically take about 18 months to appear, but the multi-year decline before that lag window is a genuine signal that the initial filing wave has passed. New entrants should expect to compete for space that is more settled than growing.
F17C covers pressure vessels and gas storage — the tank, insulation and boil-off handling claims that make up 344 of the 415 families in this dataset. F25J covers gas liquefaction and separation, the process side of turning hydrogen into a liquid, which accounts for 108 records. The heavy skew toward F17C means storage and vessel engineering, not the liquefaction process itself, is where most of the claim activity and competitive crowding sits.
The IPC breakdown shows several branches with materially lower filing density than the core F17C vessel-design cluster, including custody-transfer metering, para-ortho conversion catalysis, marine bunkering vacuum-insulation joints and pipeline material embrittlement mitigation. These sit under classifications like C01B, B63B and F16L that each account for under 50 of the 415 records. Lower density doesn't guarantee an easy grant, but it does mean less prior art to design around compared to core tank geometry.
Almost entirely alone. The dataset shows only four co-assignee pairs across all 415 families, and the strongest pairing — Air Liquide's cryogenic process research arm with Air Liquide USA — is an intra-group filing rather than a cross-company collaboration. That low collaboration rate suggests companies are treating their storage and boil-off IP as proprietary rather than pursuing joint development filings, which is worth factoring into any partnership or licensing strategy.
Research Cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen Handling in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole cryogenic liquid hydrogen handling 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.