Geopolymer Concrete Foundation Engineering Patent Snapshot
The patent corpus for geopolymer concrete foundation engineering is nascent, with just 4 patent families on record and the top five filers accounting for the entirety of activity among the hundred largest filers. Filing activity is sporadic, concentrated in 2017 and 2024, with China and the United States as the only active jurisdictions.
A nascent, highly concentrated field with two jurisdictions dominating
University of Tennessee Research Foundation and Hebei Research Institute of Construction & Geotechnical Investigation Co., Ltd. each hold 2 patent records, jointly accounting for the top tier in this very small corpus.
The top five filers collectively represent 100% of the activity among the ranked applicants visible in this query, indicating extreme concentration with no meaningful second tier yet established.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | 2 | |
| 2 | HEBEI RES INST OF CONSTR & GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGAT… | 2 | |
| 3 | CCCC Third Highway Engineering Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 4 | China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Beijing Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 5 | China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Co., Ltd. | 1 |
The co-leadership of an American research university and a Chinese applied-engineering institute signals that foundational science and infrastructure-project applications are being pursued in parallel, but neither player has yet built a visible portfolio.
The most recent filings may be under-represented due to standard patent publication delays of 18–24 months; the 2024 and 2025 data should be treated as preliminary. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sporadic filing activity with foundation engineering dominating the technology mix
Annual filings show two isolated clusters — 2017 and 2024 — separated by seven years of zero activity, suggesting the field is at a very early and uneven commercialization stage. The IPC composition is dominated by E02D (Foundations & earth drilling), with secondary coverage in C04B (Ceramics, cement & refractories) and B28B (Shaping clay & cement products).
Annual filing trend
Two filings appeared in 2017, followed by a seven-year gap, then two further filings in 2024. The 2024 entries should be treated with caution given publication lag; no activity is recorded for 2025–2026 to date.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
E02D (Foundations & earth drilling) accounts for all 4 patent records, confirming that structural and geotechnical application is the primary technical anchor. C04B (Ceramics, cement & refractories) appears in 2 records, and B28B (Shaping clay & cement products) in 1, reflecting the materials-science dimension of geopolymer binder formulation.
↗ 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.
Cast in place geopolymer concrete pile with heatin…
Methods of preparing cast-in-place geopolymer piles using electrical heating wire (<b>130</b>) to provide heat to cure the piles are described. The heating wire (<b>130</b>) can be associated with a reinforcement cage (<b>120</b>) inserted in the pile shaft. Rod-shaped heating units comprising electrical heating wire (<b>130</b>) can be inserted into a pile… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cast in place geopolymer concrete pile with heatin… | 11 |
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
With only 4 patent families on record and highly sporadic filing, this is one of the least contested patent spaces in civil-engineering materials. The structure rewards early movers who can establish defensible positions before the field matures.
Pre-growth embryonic stage
The lifecycle stage cannot be formally assessed from the available evidence, but the filing pattern — two clusters seven years apart with zero intervening activity — is consistent with an embryonic or pre-growth field. No sustained year-over-year filing ramp has yet emerged, and the total corpus of 4 patent families confirms the technology has not yet attracted broad industry participation.
EmbryonicExtreme concentration; no established second tier
The top five filers account for 100% of the activity among the ranked applicants visible in this query, and no single applicant holds more than 2 patent records. This means there is effectively no visible incumbent with an entrenched portfolio, lowering the barrier to establishing a meaningful position through targeted filing in adjacent sub-classes.
High concentrationCross-border academic–industry co-filing is the defining partnership pattern
The most active co-filing pair is Hebei Research Institute of Construction & Geotechnical Investigation Co., Ltd. and the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, with 2 joint records — representing the entirety of the largest collaboration in this corpus. A second pair, China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Co., Ltd. and its Beijing Construction Engineering subsidiary, filed 1 joint record, suggesting that vertically integrated infrastructure groups are also entering via internal co-invention.
Co-filing activeChina and the United States are the only active jurisdictions
China and the United States each account for 2 patent records. No European, Japanese, Korean, or PCT-route filings appear in the corpus. This leaves a wide jurisdictional white space for applicants seeking coverage in infrastructure-intensive markets such as the EU, India, or Southeast Asia.
2 jurisdictionsGo 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 |
|---|---|---|
| HEBEI RES INST OF CONSTR & GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGAT… | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | 2 |
| China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Co., Ltd. | China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Beijing Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
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.
University of Tennessee Research Foundation
Holds 2 patent records focused on E02D 5 (foundations), B28B 11 (shaping), and C04B 40 (cement refractories), indicating a materials-science-to-application pipeline. No momentum trend data is available for this applicant, so trajectory cannot be quantified from the evidence, but their 2017-era filings represent the earliest activity in the corpus.
patent records: 2Hebei Research Institute of Construction & Geotechnical Investigation Co., Ltd.
Holds 2 patent records with an identical IPC profile to the University of Tennessee Research Foundation — E02D 5, B28B 11, and C04B 40 — consistent with the cross-border co-filing relationship between the two. Their co-authorship of the field’s top-cited work on cast-in-place geopolymer concrete piles (11 citations) gives them the highest citation impact in this corpus.
patent records: 2Frequently asked questions
The corpus currently contains 4 patent families. This is a very small and nascent body of IP, with filing activity recorded only in 2017 and 2024.
University of Tennessee Research Foundation and Hebei Research Institute of Construction & Geotechnical Investigation Co., Ltd. each hold 2 patent records, placing them jointly at the top of the ranking. Three Chinese infrastructure contractors — CCCC Third Highway Engineering Co., Ltd., China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Co., Ltd., and its Beijing Construction Engineering subsidiary — each hold 1 patent record.
China and the United States are the only jurisdictions represented in the corpus, each with 2 patent records. No European, PCT, Japanese, or Korean filings appear in the evidence.
The top-cited work in the corpus is a patent on cast-in-place geopolymer concrete piles with heating, which has accumulated 11 citations. It is the single most influential prior art identified in the evidence.
Yes. The most active co-filing relationship is between Hebei Research Institute of Construction & Geotechnical Investigation Co., Ltd. and University of Tennessee Research Foundation, with 2 jointly filed records. A second collaboration exists between China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Co., Ltd. and its Beijing Construction Engineering subsidiary, with 1 joint record.
The filing pattern — 2 records in 2017, no activity from 2018 through 2023, then 2 records in 2024 — is consistent with an embryonic or pre-growth field. No sustained annual filing ramp has yet emerged. Data from 2024 onward may also be under-represented due to standard publication lag.
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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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