Desalination Brine Resource & Mineral Recovery Patent Landscape
The desalination brine resource and mineral recovery field is in a growth stage, with annual filings rising from 10 in 2017 to a multi-year high and 106% growth over the recent window. Water Standard Co LLC holds a commanding lead, and the top five filers account for 26% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, indicating a moderately concentrated but still open competitive field.
Water Standard Co LLC leads a moderately concentrated field
Water Standard Co LLC ranks first with 39 patent records, nearly double the second-ranked Garfield International Investments Ltd at 21 patent records, establishing a clear top-tier position in this space.
The top five filers — Water Standard Co LLC, Garfield International Investments Ltd, University of South Carolina, Regents of the University of California, and Oriel Seasalt Co Ltd — collectively account for 26% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, reflecting moderate concentration with meaningful room for challengers.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Water Standard Co LLC | 39 | |
| 2 | Garfield International Investments Ltd | 21 | |
| 3 | University of South Carolina | 11 | |
| 4 | Regents of the University of California | 11 | |
| 5 | Oriel Seasalt Co Ltd | 10 | |
| 6 | ABB (Schweiz) AG | 10 | |
| 7 | Surplus Management Inc | 9 | |
| 8 | Znano LLC | 9 | |
| 9 | General Electric Co | 7 | |
| 10 | Linde AG | 7 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Toray Industries Inc | 7 | |
| 12 | KELADA MAHER ISAAC | 6 | |
| 13 | KOREA INST OF CIVIL ENG & BUILDING TECH | 6 | |
| 14 | CHINA PETROLEUM & CHEMICAL CORP | 6 | |
| 15 | Accu Lab Co Ltd | 5 | |
| 16 | Texaco Development Corp | 5 | |
| 17 | Justeq LLC | 5 | |
| 18 | GORDON ANDREW W | 4 | |
| 19 | EXPERTISE | 4 | |
| 20 | ABB Research Ltd | 4 |
The leader’s breadth across water treatment, separation, and mixing processes signals an integrated systems approach, while academic entrants such as the University of South Carolina and the Regents of the University of California indicate active knowledge generation that could feed licensing or spin-out activity.
Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 are understated due to standard patent publication lag, so apparent softness in those years should not be read as a real slowdown. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sustained filing growth anchored by water treatment and separation technology
Annual filing activity has grown strongly from 2017 through the mid-2020s, and the technology mix is overwhelmingly concentrated in water and wastewater treatment alongside separation processes, with a long tail of adjacent classes.
Annual filing trend
Filings climbed from 10 in 2017 to 40 in 2023, with the 2024 and 2025 bars likely understated by publication lag; the multi-year window shows 106% growth, consistent with the field’s Growth lifecycle stage.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
C02F (water and wastewater treatment) and B01D (separation processes including filtration) dominate the IPC mix, together accounting for the large majority of records; downstream value-added classes such as C01D (alkali-metal compounds) and C22B (metal extraction and refining) remain sparse, signaling that brine-to-chemicals conversion is less contested than core treatment steps.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Method and system for treatment of brackish water …
Methods and systems for treating brackish desalination brine for the recovery of fresh water are disclosed. The method includes treating a source of brackish desalination brine with an ultraviolet-driven persulfate photolysis oxidation pre-treatment; treating the source of brackish desalination brine treated with the ultraviolet-driven persulfate photolysis… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Production of purified water and high value chemic… | 132 |
| 2 | Production of purified water and high value chemic… | 126 |
| 3 | Method and System for Treating Brine Waste Water | 116 |
| 4 | High performance membranes for water reclamation u… | 110 |
| 5 | Waste water treatment | 105 |
| 6 | Water desalination | 87 |
| 7 | A pretreatment process for the saline water feeds … | 70 |
| 8 | Water desalination | 64 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the structure means for R&D investment
The field’s growth trajectory, moderate concentration, and skew toward treatment-process patents over end-product chemistry create distinct strategic implications depending on a team’s position in the value chain.
Growth stage with rising annual volume
The lifecycle evidence places this field firmly in Growth, with annual filings still rising and the most recent years understated by publication lag. The 106% growth over the recent window confirms expanding inventor attention. Early movers who establish broad separation and treatment claims now are likely to set the prior-art landscape for the next decade.
Growth stageModerate concentration leaves room for challengers
The top five filers hold 26% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, and the leader’s 39-record position is sizeable but not insurmountable. Academic filers such as the University of South Carolina and the Regents of the University of California indicate active upstream research that has not yet consolidated into dominant commercial positions. A focused entrant with differentiated chemistry or membrane technology could establish a credible tier-two position.
Moderate concentrationEarly-stage co-filing clusters around Surplus Management Inc
The evidence identifies three co-filing pairs: ABB Research Ltd with ABB (Schweiz) AG, Barelli John Joseph with Surplus Management Inc, and Agnihotri Dileep Kumar with Surplus Management Inc, each with two joint records. These clusters are small, suggesting that formal R&D partnerships remain nascent. The absence of large multi-party consortia is consistent with a field still in early commercial structuring.
Nascent collaborationChina leads filing activity; US and Europe provide secondary coverage
China is the dominant filing jurisdiction, followed by the United States, the European Patent Office, WIPO PCT, and India. Australia and South Korea also show notable activity. The spread across PCT and EPO routes by top filers indicates intent to build multi-jurisdictional protection, particularly relevant given that the largest desalination markets span the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and North America.
China-led, global spreadGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| ABB Research Ltd | ABB (Schweiz) AG | 2 |
| BARELLI JOHN JOSEPH | Surplus Management Inc | 2 |
| AGNIHOTRI DILEEP KUMAR | Surplus Management Inc | 2 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Water Standard Co LLC leads; Garfield International Investments Ltd is the nearest challenger
Two commercial entities dominate the ranking by a clear margin over academic and industrial incumbents, with both anchoring their portfolios in water treatment and membrane separation.
Water Standard Co LLC
Water Standard Co LLC holds 39 patent records, the largest position in the corpus. Its technical focus spans C02F water and wastewater treatment, B01D separation processes, and B01F mixing and stirring — indicating a broad, integrated process portfolio rather than a single-point solution. No momentum trend entry is available for the current period beyond their established ranking position.
patent records: 39Garfield International Investments Ltd
Garfield International Investments Ltd holds 21 patent records and concentrates its activity in C02F water treatment and two B01D separation sub-classes, reflecting a tighter focus on membrane and filtration process IP. The gap to the leader is meaningful but not prohibitive, and its depth in separation technology could be competitive as membrane-based mineral extraction gains commercial traction.
patent records: 21| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Regents of the University of California | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant treatment core
Several IPC classes appear in the corpus at low share relative to the dominant C02F and B01D branches; two stand out as technically plausible areas where activity is sparse and differentiated IP could be established.
C01D · Alkali-metal compounds
C01D covers the production and purification of sodium, potassium, and lithium compounds — directly relevant to lithium and potassium recovery from brine concentrate. With only 17 patent records and a 2% share of the corpus, this branch is sparsely covered relative to the commercial interest in battery-grade lithium recovery. An entrant with selective precipitation or ion-exchange chemistry targeting alkali-metal products could find limited prior-art density here.
Search this in Eureka →C22B · Metal extraction & refining
C22B covers hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical extraction of metals, applicable to recovering magnesium, strontium, and trace metals from brine streams. Only 12 patent records appear in this class at a 1% share, despite the growing commercial interest in zero-liquid-discharge mineral valorization. Entry paths include coupling established hydrometallurgical unit operations with desalination-specific brine feed characterization.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | C02F 1 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 9 · Water & wastewater treatment | B01D 61 · Separation processes (filtration etc.) | C02F 103 · Water & wastewater treatment | B01D 65 · Separation processes (filtration etc.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water Standard Co LLC | Strong · 39 | Strong · 34 | Strong · 38 | Emerging · 3 | Absent |
| Garfield International Investments Ltd | Strong · 20 | Absent | Strong · 18 | Absent | Strong · 17 |
| University of South Carolina | Strong · 13 | Strong · 11 | Strong · 12 | Absent | Absent |
| ABB Research Ltd | Strong · 12 | Absent | Strong · 12 | Absent | Strong · 12 |
| Regents of the University of California | Strong · 11 | Strong · 11 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 231 patent families in scope, spanning global jurisdictions and filed across the past decade.
Water Standard Co LLC leads with 39 patent records, nearly double the second-ranked Garfield International Investments Ltd at 21 patent records.
China is the dominant filing jurisdiction, followed by the United States and the European Patent Office. PCT filings indicate that leading applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdictional protection.
The field is classified as Growth, with annual filings still rising and 106% growth recorded over the recent window. The most recent filing years are understated due to patent publication lag.
C01D (alkali-metal compounds, including lithium and potassium) and C22B (metal extraction and refining) each appear at low share — 2% and 1% respectively — despite strong commercial interest in recovering these materials from brine streams.
Collaboration is nascent. The evidence identifies three co-filing pairs, each with two joint records: ABB Research Ltd with ABB (Schweiz) AG, Barelli John Joseph with Surplus Management Inc, and Agnihotri Dileep Kumar with Surplus Management Inc. Large multi-party consortia are not yet evident in the corpus.
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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.
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