FO Chlorine & Fouling Durability Patent Snapshot 2026
Forward osmosis chlorine tolerance and fouling durability is a small, maturing field anchored by a single commercial leader—Forward Water Tech—alongside a cluster of academic co-filers concentrated in the US, Australia, India, and Singapore. Filing volume plateaued around 2019 and has remained flat on a multi-year basis, signalling a field where foundational membrane chemistry positions are largely staked and incremental differentiation now drives activity.
Forward Water Tech leads a concentrated field with academic co-filers occupying the second tier
Forward Water Tech holds the top-ranked position by a wide margin, with 19 patent records, nearly four times the count of the next-ranked applicants—Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the University of Melbourne, each at 5 patent records.
The top five filers account for 54% of the combined total across the ranked applicants visible in this query, confirming a highly concentrated visible assignee structure. A meaningful second tier is formed entirely by research organisations: CSIRO, University of Melbourne, Albemarle Corp, and the National University of Singapore each hold between 4 and 5 patent records.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Forward Water Technologies Inc. | 19 | |
| 2 | COMMONWEALTH SCI & IND RES ORG | 5 | |
| 3 | University of Melbourne | 5 | |
| 4 | Albemarle Corporation | 4 | |
| 5 | National University of Singapore | 4 | |
| 6 | REVEAU TECH & SOLUTIONS INC | 3 | |
| 7 | COUNCIL OF SCI & IND RES | 3 | |
| 8 | Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati | 2 | |
| 9 | Chung Tai Shung | 2 | |
| 10 | Toyobo Co., Ltd. | 2 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | FilmTec Corporation | 2 | |
| 12 | KOREA UNIV RES & BUSINESS FOUND | 2 | |
| 13 | Beijing Baoshengtong International Electric Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 14 | Nitto Denko Corporation | 2 | |
| 15 | Nanyang Technological University | 1 | |
| 16 | Northeastern University China | 1 | |
| 17 | Eric M. V. Hoek | 1 | |
| 18 | Greg R. Guillen | 1 | |
| 19 | Mary L. Lind | 1 | |
| 20 | Mavis C. Y. Wong | 1 |
Forward Water Tech’s commanding position implies it has the broadest claim coverage across separation-process and water-treatment classes in this niche; challengers seeking freedom-to-operate or licensing leverage will need to design around its portfolio or target the adjacent branches it has not prioritised.
Patent records filed in the most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and may be under-represented in this corpus; apparent flatness in 2024–2026 should be interpreted with that caveat. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity plateaued after a 2019 peak; separation processes dominate the technology mix
The annual filing trend and IPC technology composition together reveal a field that reached its formative growth phase around 2019 and has since settled into a steady but low-volume cadence, with membrane separation processes accounting for the large majority of technical activity.
Annual filing trend
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 4 records in 2019, then eased to a range of 1–3 per year through 2023. The 2024–2026 figures are likely under-counted due to publication lag and should not be read as a further decline. The multi-year trajectory confirms a maturing, plateau-stage field rather than an emerging one.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B01D (Separation processes, including filtration and membrane technology) is visible in the IPC composition with 59 records, followed by C02F (Water and wastewater treatment) at 36 records. All other classes—including C01D for alkali-metal compounds, A23L for food applications, and B82Y for nanotechnology—each account for 6 or fewer records, indicating that membrane fabrication and water treatment are the core technical axes while adjacent application domains remain sparsely covered.
↗ 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 of forming forward osmosis membranes and th…
There is provided a method of forming forward osmosis (FO) membranes. The FO membrane should have 1) at least one active rejection layer with high water permeability and solute rejection, 2) a support structure or substrate with tailored properties to reduce ICP, and 3) high membrane stability. (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Osmotic membrane synthesized on interface | 147 |
| 2 | Forward Osmosis, Reverse Osmosis, and Nano/Micro F… | 44 |
| 3 | Process For Concentration Of Lithium Containing So… | 41 |
| 4 | Membranes for forward osmosis and membrane distill… | 19 |
| 5 | Process of spontaneous dewatering of feed solution… | 17 |
| 6 | Forward osmosis membrane and method of manufacture | 15 |
| 7 | Forward osmosis membrane with blended polymeric su… | 14 |
| 8 | Membranes for forward osmosis and membrane distill… | 12 |
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.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Forward Water Tech
Forward Water Tech holds 19 patent records, the largest portfolio in this niche. Its technical emphasis spans B01D 61 (pressure-driven membrane separation processes), C02F 1 (water and wastewater treatment methods), and B01D 1 (evaporative separation), covering both the membrane architecture and the process engineering dimensions of chlorine and fouling durability. Momentum data marks it as a new entrant in terms of recent filing activity, suggesting its portfolio was built in a concentrated burst rather than through sustained long-term accumulation.
patent records: 19CSIRO & University of Melbourne
CSIRO and the University of Melbourne each hold 5 patent records and share an identical IPC focus: B01D 71 (membrane materials), C02F 1 (water treatment), and B01D 69 (membrane forms such as hollow fibres and flat sheets). Their 5 jointly filed records indicate these are effectively a single coordinated research programme rather than independent actors. This partnership represents the field’s strongest academic IP cluster and a credible licensing or spin-out source for commercial partners seeking membrane material innovations.
patent records: 5 eachFrequently asked questions
The corpus comprises 15 patent families in scope. The field is small and specialised, which reflects both its technical niche status and the relatively recent emergence of commercial forward osmosis deployment at scale.
Forward Water Tech is the clear leader with 19 patent records, roughly four times the count of the next-ranked applicants. Its portfolio spans both membrane separation process claims and water treatment method claims.
The lifecycle evidence indicates a maturity stage: annual filings peaked around 2019 and have plateaued since. The multi-year filing window does not show further growth. The most recent 18–24 months of data may be under-counted due to publication lag, but the overall trajectory is plateau rather than growth.
The United States leads with 11 patent records, followed by WIPO PCT at 9 records, and Australia, India, and Japan each at 6 records. Europe, Israel, Singapore, and Canada each hold 4 records. The PCT filing activity signals commercialisation intent across multiple regions.
The most active co-filing partnership is between the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and the University of Melbourne, with 5 jointly filed records. Wang Kaiyu and the National University of Singapore co-filed 2 records, as did Chung Tai Shung and the National University of Singapore. Corporate-academic co-filing is effectively absent from the evidence.
Nanotechnology applications (B82Y) and food and beverage concentration (A23L) each have only 2 patent records in the corpus, making them the sparsest branches relative to the visible separation-process and water-treatment classes. Alkali-metal compound processing (C01D), relevant to lithium concentration via forward osmosis, holds 6 records and represents a somewhat more active but still relatively sparse adjacent area.
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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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