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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/dilute-and-dense-phase-pneumatic-conveying-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Updated 2026Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying Patents: Who Holds the Ground
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 20 records and the 2021-to-2024 span shows a 56% decline (9 to 4), a genuine cooling rather than a lag artefact for that window.
- The top 5 assignees hold 30.8% of all 292 records while the top 10 hold 48.6% - concentrated at the head, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind it.
- B65G conveying claims cover 46.9% of records but chemical process (B01J), polymer (C08F) and drilling (E21B) classes carry meaningful overlapping claim density of their own.
292
Published Records
31%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-56%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (9 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 292 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 292 published records matching pneumatic conveying process terms - saltation velocity, pressure drop prediction, plug formation, air mover selection, material degradation and line diameter - across dilute and dense phase systems. The scope spans conveying equipment claims (B65G) through to the chemical and drilling contexts where conveying hardware gets embedded as a sub-claim, such as catalyst introduction (B01J) and well servicing (E21B).
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the last one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity - treat 2024 as the most recent year with a complete picture.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Data
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 292 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claim language actually sits in.
A 2017 peak followed by a real decline
Filings hit 20 in 2017, the high point of the window. The 2021-to-2024 stretch fell from 9 to 4 records, a 56% drop over three years - a slowdown in an already mature filing base, not a data artefact of publication lag.
Conveying hardware dominates, but not exclusively
B65G (conveying and material handling) appears in 46.9% of the 292 records, the largest single subclass. B01J (chemical/physical processes), C08F (addition polymers), E21B (drilling) and smaller shares in B01F, B01D, C01B and A24C show the technology's claim footprint extends well past conveying-equipment classes into the processes that depend on it.
Shares are the percentage of the 292 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited prior art in this space
Representative Filing
US5407305A - Continuous dense phase conveying method utilizing high pressure gas at predetermined gas pressures within a conveying pipe
A.I. ACQUISITION COMPANY, INC.
A continuous dense phase conveying method and apparatus, for conveying large quantities of dry bulk material through a material conveying pipe, feed particulate material into the conveying pipe and supply a quantity of low pressure gas into the pipe to force particulate material to move therealong. A gas pressure within the conveying pipe is monitored. When this monitored pressure reaches a predetermined gas pressure level, a quantity of high pressure gas is supplied to the conveying pipe to force the particulate material to move continuously therealong.Filed by A.I. Acquisition Company, Inc., dated 1995-04-18 - a foundational dense-phase pressure-control claim still cited across later filings in this dataset.
Highest-citation records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5556238A | Process and apparatus for introducing a solid into a reactor | 182 |
| 2 | EP0499759A1 | Process for monitoring flow in a pneumatic conveying system | 176 |
| 3 | EP0628343A1 | Process and apparatus for introducing a solid into a reactor | 96 |
| 4 | US5198029A | Apparatus for coating small solids | 92 |
| 5 | US4009912A | Pneumatic conveying apparatus and method | 83 |
| 6 | US20060102390A1 | Drill cuttings conveyance systems and methods | 76 |
| 7 | US20070138211A1 | Rotary valve for handling solid particulate material | 67 |
| 8 | US20110308155A1 | Producing Low Tar Gases in a Multi-Stage Gasifier | 60 |
| 9 | US6383251B1 | Direct iron and steelmaking | 55 |
| 10 | US8383071B2 | Process for dilute phase injection of dry alkaline materials | 53 |
Citation counts reflect an older, heavily-cited core - a signal of influence on later filers, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Reading the concentration, class overlap and citation data together points to where claim space is occupied and where it is thin.
Concentration
30.8% / 90 records
top 5 assignees, of 292 total
The head of the field is narrow
Five assignees hold 90 of the 292 records in scope, and the top 10 extend that to 142 records (48.6%). That leaves the remaining 90 ranked companies filing in single digits or fewer - a long tail rather than a broad middle.
Ranking covers 100 companies total
Trend
20 → 1
peak-year (2017) to latest partial year
Filing has cooled from its 2017 peak
The 2021-to-2024 window alone shows a 56% decline, from 9 records to 4. Combined with the 2017 peak of 20, the pattern reads as a technology past its filing high point rather than one still accelerating.
2025 onward still filling in due to publication lag
Composition
46.9%
of 292 records carry a B65G class
Conveying-equipment claims still anchor the field
B65G is the largest single subclass by a wide margin, but B01J, C08F and E21B each carry double-digit record counts - meaning conveying claims routinely overlap with chemical process, polymer and drilling contexts rather than standing alone.
Classes overlap; shares do not sum to 100%
Citation base
182 citations
highest count in the dataset (US5556238A)
The most-cited prior art predates the recent slowdown
The top-cited records - on solids introduction into reactors and flow monitoring - are decades old. They anchor the field's foundational claims, but heavy citation reflects age and searchability in this corpus more than current commercial weight.
Treat citation rank as an influence signal, not a recency one
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to dilute and dense phase pneumatic conveying, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where momentum has stalled
The ranked leaders show a concentrated head, but recent-year momentum data suggests even the largest filers have gone quiet in the latest tracked year.
Leader
23 records
single largest assignee
One assignee holds the largest single block
The leading assignee's 23 records sit well above fifth place (15) and tenth place (9), confirming a genuine concentration at the top rather than a near-tie among several firms.
Out of 292 records in scope
Momentum
0 in latest year
across every tracked top assignee
Recent-year filing has gone flat across the leaders
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero records in the latest year - consistent with the broader 2021-to-2024 decline, though publication lag means some of this understates true recent activity.
Latest year figures are provisional
Collaboration
10 pairs
co-assignee pairings identified
Co-filing is limited and concentrated in one cluster
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest links are all within a single chemical-company cluster filing alongside named inventors - not a broadly collaborative field.
Strongest pairs each carry 8 shared records
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Lhoist Recherche et Developpement SA | 0 | — |
| Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP | 0 | — |
| ADA Environmental Solutions LLC | 0 | — |
| J.O.A. Technology Beheer | 0 | — |
| National Oilwell Varco LP | 0 | — |
| SHERWOOD WILLIAM LYON | 0 | — |
| PNEUMATIC PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES LLC | 0 | — |
| MAGUIRE STEPHEN B | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe where filing has concentrated and where it has thinned. Turning that into a filing or design-around decision means working the specific claims.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leading assignee's block
With 23 records held by the single largest filer and a further 90 across the top 5, any new dense-phase pressure-control claim should be checked against that concentrated set first.
Run an FTO search in Eureka →Track the under-claimed sub-areas before they fill in
Sensing, adaptive air-mover control and degradation monitoring show thinner filing density than core conveying-equipment claims - a narrowing window for a first-mover filing.
Explore white space in Eureka →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
The dataset's leading assignee holds 23 of the 292 records in scope, noticeably ahead of fifth place at 15 and tenth place at 9. The top 5 assignees combined hold 90 records, 30.8% of the total, and the top 10 hold 142 records, 48.6%. That leaves the remaining 90 ranked companies filing in much smaller numbers, so the field has a concentrated head and a long tail rather than an even spread.
No - filing peaked in 2017 at 20 records and has declined since. The clearest complete-year evidence is the 2021-to-2024 span, which fell from 9 records to 4, a 56% decrease. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years should not be read as a further collapse, but the multi-year direction through 2024 is a real decline.
B65G (conveying and material handling) is the largest single IPC subclass, appearing in 46.9% of the 292 records. Beyond that, B01J (chemical and physical processes, 13.7%), C08F (addition polymers, 10.3%) and E21B (drilling, 8.9%) all carry meaningful record counts, showing conveying hardware claims are frequently embedded inside chemical processing, polymer production and well-servicing patents rather than filed as standalone equipment claims.
US5407305A, filed by A.I. Acquisition Company, Inc. and dated 1995-04-18, claims a continuous dense-phase conveying method that monitors gas pressure inside the conveying pipe and switches from a low-pressure gas supply to a high-pressure gas supply once a predetermined pressure threshold is reached, in order to keep particulate material moving continuously. It is a foundational dense-phase pressure-control patent rather than a general conveying-equipment claim, so it is most relevant to anyone building pressure-triggered gas-supply switching into a dense-phase system.
Filing density is lighter around real-time saltation velocity sensing, adaptive air mover selection controls, plug-flow degradation monitoring and variable line diameter transitions compared with the dense core of B65G conveying-equipment claims. These are process-control and sensing layers sitting on top of well-claimed mechanical conveying hardware, which is why they show up as thinner in the composition data even though the underlying process terms are in scope. A freedom-to-operate check specific to these sub-areas is worth running before assuming the ground is open.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Dilute and Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole dilute and dense phase pneumatic conveying 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.