Falling Film Evaporator Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
Falling film and forced circulation evaporator patents: who holds the claim space and where it is still open
19.5% concentration at the top. The five most active filers together account for 100 of the 514 records in scope, a leader well ahead of the field at 41 records against 13 for fifth place. Annual filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 32 in 2019. The most recent complete comparison shows a 36% drop, from 14 records in 2021 to 9 in 2024; 2025 and 2026 are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates, so treat the tail of the chart as provisional rather than a confirmed decline.
- 1GENOMATICA INC8.0%
- 2MOMENTIVE PERFORMANCE MATERIALS INC3.3%
- 3CARRIER CORP3.1%
- 4EXCELENTEC HLDG2.5%
- 5AHLSTROM OYJ2.5%
See the full falling film and forced circulation evaporators analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in falling film and forced circulation evaporator technology?
The ranked field covers 100 companies, with one assignee holding 41 records, well ahead of 13 at fifth place and 10 at tenth. The top five filers combined account for 19.5% of the 514 records in scope, and the top ten reach 30.4%, so while there is a clear leader, most of the ranked field files only occasionally. This pattern suggests a market where one or two organisations have built durable positions while the rest compete on narrower, more specific claims.
Is patent filing activity in this field growing or shrinking?
Filing peaked at 32 records in 2019 and has since cooled, falling 36% from 14 records in 2021 to 9 in 2024, the last year that can be treated as a complete comparison. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so it is too early to call this a continuing decline rather than a temporary trough. Anyone tracking this trend should revisit it once the most recent two years have had time to fully publish.
What technology areas dominate the patent claims in this space?
Separation processes under IPC class B01D appear on 46.1% of the 514 records, making it by far the most heavily claimed area, followed by water and wastewater treatment (C02F) at 18.5%. Heat-exchanger apparatus and detail classes, F28D and F28F, sit much lower at 11.9% and 6.4% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures overlap rather than summing to 100%, but the gap between separation-side and hardware-side claim density is consistent and notable.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Falling Film and Forced Circulation Evaporators covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.