Electrocatalysis Process Intensification Patent Landscape 2026
The electrocatalysis process intensification field is in an active growth phase, with a 174% increase in recent filing activity and a corpus of 285 patent families dominated by electrolytic compound production (C25B). De Nora Elettrodi leads among industrial filers, while Chinese universities and global research institutions are the fastest-rising new entrants.
De Nora leads a fragmented field where academia is rapidly closing the gap
De Nora Elettrodi SPA holds the top position with 21 patent records, followed by Eltech Systems at 15 and Bayer AG at 12. Zhejiang University and the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University are tied at 11, signaling that academic institutions are major contributors alongside established industrials.
The top five filers account for 19% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, indicating a moderately fragmented competitive structure with no single dominant player commanding an outsized share. A clear tier gap separates the top two industrial incumbents from the dense middle tier of universities and niche specialists.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Nora Elettrodi SPA | 21 | |
| 2 | Eltech Systems | 15 | |
| 3 | Bayer AG | 12 | |
| 4 | Zhejiang University | 11 | |
| 5 | Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | 11 | |
| 6 | INEOS Technologies Limited | 10 | |
| 7 | Industrie De Nora SPA | 10 | |
| 8 | Governing Council of the University of Toronto | 9 | |
| 9 | Dalian University of Technology | 9 | |
| 10 | William Marsh Rice University | 8 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | University of Sydney | 7 | |
| 12 | City University of Hong Kong | 7 | |
| 13 | NewSouth Innovations Pty Ltd | 7 | |
| 14 | Daiki Engineering Co., Ltd. | 6 | |
| 15 | RenewCO2 LLC | 6 | |
| 16 | International Academy of Optoelectronics at Zhaoqing, South China Normal University | 6 | |
| 17 | Diamond Shamrock Technologies | 5 | |
| 18 | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | 5 | |
| 19 | Diamond Shamrock Corporation | 5 | |
| 20 | KUNMING UNIV OF SCI & TECH | 5 |
The industrial leaders’ positions reflect decades of electrode and chlor-alkali technology accumulation, but the rapid entry of universities — particularly from. China, Australia, and North America — signals that fundamental catalyst and reactor design knowledge is being generated broadly and could erode incumbents’ technical differentiation.
Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 are understated due to patent publication lag; the apparent plateau in those years should not be interpreted as a slowdown. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filings have grown sharply since 2019, anchored by electrolytic compound production
The annual filing trend and technology composition charts together reveal a field that has accelerated markedly over the past six years and is concentrated in a single dominant IPC class, with a long tail of adjacent branches.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings grew from 2 in 2017 to a recorded high of 60 in 2024, reflecting a sustained multi-year expansion. The 2025 and 2026 figures are understated by publication lag and should not be read as a decline; the underlying growth trajectory remains intact.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
C25B (electrolytic production of compounds) dominates the technology mix by a wide margin, reflecting the field’s core focus on electrode-driven synthesis. B01J (chemical and physical processes and catalysis) and H01M (batteries, cells, and fuel cells) form a secondary cluster, while C25C, B82Y, and C01B represent smaller but potentially adjacent branches worth monitoring.
↗ 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.
Unlocking new reaction pathways for electrocatalyt…
A combined plasma-electrocatalysis CO2/CO conversion system and method of using the same is described. The reactor platform is capable of delivering non-thermal plasma-activated CO2/CO to a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) to enable electrocatalytic conversion of reactive plasma species while avoiding quenching in the aqueous electrolyte. Using a co-fed… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electrode with electrocatalytic surface | 101 |
| 2 | Carbon-cloth-based electrocatalytic gas diffusion … | 79 |
| 3 | Novel cathode and bipolar electrode incorporating … | 78 |
| 4 | Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution and biomass up… | 69 |
| 5 | Process for the electrolysis of technical-grade hy… | 64 |
| 6 | Initiation and Control of Nanothermal Plasmonic En… | 43 |
| 7 | Electrodes for electrolytic processes | 41 |
| 8 | Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation and Hydrodeoxygenat… | 37 |
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 competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural observations — maturity, concentration, collaboration, and geography — shape where new investment is most likely to find differentiated space or encounter entrenched competition.
Growth stage: annual volume still expanding, not yet mature
The lifecycle evidence classifies this field as Growth, with annual filings rising consistently and no confirmed peak. The 174% recent-window increase confirms that the technology window is still open for foundational patents in electrode design, reactor architecture, and catalyst formulation. Entrants filing now can still establish meaningful prior-art positions.
Lifecycle: GrowthModerate fragmentation creates room for focused challengers
The top five filers hold 19% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total — a modest share that reflects no single player locking up the field. Industrial incumbents (De Nora, Eltech, Bayer) dominate by volume, but the dense mid-tier of universities and startups means that a narrowly focused challenger can accumulate a defensible position in an adjacent sub-domain without confronting a monopoly.
Concentration: ModerateIndustry-academia partnerships are the dominant co-filing pattern
The most active co-filing pairs are De Nora Elettrodi with Bayer AG (9 joint filings) and TotalEnergies Linked Technologies with the Governing Council of the University of Toronto (9 joint filings). Zhejiang University appears in five separate collaboration pairs, including with Sinopec Nanjing Chemical Industry Research Institute and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, indicating a hub role for Chinese academic-industrial consortia in this field.
Collaboration: ActiveChina leads filings; the US and EPO remain essential validation routes
China accounts for the largest share of patent records filed, followed by the United States, WIPO PCT, and the European Patent Office. India and Australia also appear as notable secondary jurisdictions. The PCT and EPO presence indicates that leading applicants are pursuing broad international protection, making freedom-to-operate analysis across at least three jurisdictions essential for any new entrant.
Lead Office: ChinaGo 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 |
|---|---|---|
| De Nora Elettrodi SPA | Bayer AG | 9 |
| TotalEnergies Linked Technologies | Governing Council of the University of Toronto | 9 |
| Zhejiang University | Sinopec Nanjing Chemical Industry Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 2 |
| Zhejiang University | China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) | 2 |
| Zhejiang University | Zhejiang University Quzhou Research Institute | 1 |
| Zhejiang University | Sinopec Zhongyuan Oilfield Branch | 1 |
| Zhejiang University | Sinopec Group Nanjing Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| Bayer AG | Industrie De Nora SPA | 1 |
| Industrie De Nora SPA | Covestro AG | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
De Nora anchors industrial leadership; universities are the fastest-moving new entrants
The applicant ranking is led by an Italian electrode specialist with deep chlor-alkali roots, while a cohort of universities across. China, North America, and Australia have entered recently and are filing at pace.
De Nora Elettrodi SPA
De Nora Elettrodi SPA leads with 21 patent records, concentrated in C25B 11 (electrolytic production of compounds), B01J 27 (catalysis and chemical processes), and C01B 7 (inorganic compounds). Its filing history reflects decades of industrial electrode know-how. Applicant momentum data does not flag De Nora as a recent new entrant, consistent with a mature incumbent maintaining an established portfolio rather than surging anew.
families: 21Zhejiang University
Zhejiang University ranks fourth with 11 patent records and is classified as a new entrant in the recent filing window, with 10 recent filings — the highest recent count among the momentum-tracked applicants. Its focus spans C25B 11, C25B 1, and C25B 3, covering a broad range of electrolytic compound production sub-classes. Its active collaboration with multiple Sinopec entities signals a pathway from academic research to industrial deployment.
families: 11| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Zhejiang University | 10 | ▲ new entrant |
| Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| Eltech Systems | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| Dalian University of Technology | 6 | ▲ new entrant |
| Governing Council of the University of Toronto | 9 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant C25B core
Several IPC classes appear in the corpus at low relative volume despite plausible technical overlap with electrocatalysis process intensification; these are observations of sparsity and should be assessed for technical fit before treating them as entry points.
H01M · Batteries, cells & fuel cells
H01M accounts for 50 patent records — only 7% of the IPC-level distribution — despite the direct technical relevance of fuel cell electrocatalysis and electrolyzer membrane-electrode assemblies to process intensification objectives. The sparse coverage relative to C25B suggests that cross-domain work linking intensified electrocatalytic processes to fuel cell architectures is underrepresented. An entrant with expertise in membrane or electrode stack design could address this gap, though competitive overlap with dedicated fuel cell portfolios outside this corpus must be verified.
Search this in Eureka →B82Y · Nanotechnology applications
B82Y appears in 27 patent records (4% of the IPC distribution), reflecting early-stage interest in nanomaterial-enabled electrocatalysts — a technically well-grounded direction given the known influence of nanostructure on catalyst turnover frequency and selectivity. The low count relative to C25B indicates that nanotechnology-specific claims within process intensification workflows are not yet densely filed. Researchers working on nanostructured electrode materials could build positions here, with the caveat that B82Y is a cross-sectional classification applied unevenly across patent offices.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across C25B sub-classes
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | C25B 11 · Electrolytic production of compounds | C25B 1 · Electrolytic production of compounds | C25B 3 · Electrolytic production of compounds | C25B 9 · Electrolytic production of compounds | H01M 4 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Nora Elettrodi SPA | Strong · 20 | Moderate · 7 | Absent | Moderate · 7 | Moderate · 7 |
| Bayer AG | Strong · 11 | Strong · 9 | Absent | Strong · 9 | Strong · 9 |
| Eltech Systems | Strong · 10 | Strong · 10 | Absent | Strong · 8 | Absent |
| Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | Strong · 11 | Strong · 11 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Zhejiang University | Strong · 10 | Strong · 7 | Moderate · 5 | Absent | Absent |
| Governing Council of the University of Toronto | Absent | Absent | Strong · 9 | Strong · 8 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 285 patent families in scope. Filing activity has grown 174% in the recent window, with annual records rising from 2 in 2017 to 60 in 2024.
De Nora Elettrodi SPA leads with 21 patent records, followed by Eltech Systems at 15 and Bayer AG at 12. The top five filers account for 19% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total.
C25B (electrolytic production of compounds) is the dominant IPC class by a wide margin. B01J (chemical and physical processes and catalysis) and H01M (batteries, cells, and fuel cells) form a secondary cluster at 50 patent records each.
China is the leading filing office, followed by the United States, WIPO PCT, and the European Patent Office. India and Australia are notable secondary jurisdictions. The PCT and EPO presence indicates leading applicants seek broad international coverage.
Zhejiang University, the Governing Council of the University of Toronto, and TotalEnergies Linked Technologies are all flagged as new entrants with high recent filing counts (10, 9, and 9 recent filings respectively). Dalian University of Technology and the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University are also classified as new entrants in the recent window.
The most-cited work includes a patent titled ‘Electrode with electrocatalytic surface’ (101 citations), ‘Carbon-cloth-based electrocatalytic gas diffusion’ (79 citations), ‘Novel cathode and bipolar electrode incorporating’ (78 citations), and ‘Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution and biomass upgrading’ (69 citations). These represent core prior art in electrode design and hydrogen-coupled oxidation.
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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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