Glycol Dehydration Units Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 39.1% concentration. The five leading assignees hold 180 of the 460 records in scope — a top-heavy field with a long tail below them.
- Filings doubled 2021→2024. From 5 to 10 in that span, the clearest recent-year signal before publication lag makes 2025-26 data look artificially thin.
- Separation dominates the claim space. B01D appears in 57.2% of all 460 records, far ahead of fuels (C10L, 27.8%) and well-related classes (E21B, 15.7%).
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (10) — 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 460 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Glycol dehydration units remove water vapour from natural gas streams, typically using triethylene glycol circulated through a contactor and regeneration loop. This landscape covers 460 patent families published between 2015 and 2026 that address glycol contactors, reboiler operation, stripping gas injection, glycol carryover control and BTEX emission management — the operating problems that separate a unit that meets water dew point spec from one that does not.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate actual filing activity; treat 2025 and 2026 as still filling in rather than as a genuine slowdown.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The record set spans receiving offices across the US, WIPO, Canada, Australia, Europe and the UK, giving a broad read on where glycol dehydration protection is actually being sought rather than just where it is invented.
Filings rose sharply through the late 2010s, then rebuilt after 2021
The peak year so far is 2017 at 33 filings. Activity cooled afterward but rebuilt through the early 2020s: 2021 to 2024 filings doubled, from 5 to 10, before the expected reporting lag flattens the final two years of the chart.
Separation processes dominate; fuels and well-related classes trail
B01D (separation processes) appears in 57.2% of the 460 records, well ahead of C10L (fuels, 27.8%) and E21B (drilling and wells, 15.7%). Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% — they describe claim density per class, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 460 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Glycol Dehydration Units with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about glycol dehydration units and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative recent filing
Glycol dehydration and regeneration — US20210001268A1 (Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2021-01-07)
Within a glycol contactor, a glycol stream is contacted with a wet gas stream including water in order to transfer at least a portion of the water from the wet gas stream to the glycol stream. The glycol stream entering the glycol contactor includes a mixture of triethylene glycol and tetraethylene glycol. The glycol stream exiting the glycol contactor includes the portion of the water from the wet gas stream. The glycol stream exiting the glycol contactor is flowed to a glycol regeneration system. By the glycol regeneration system and using a solvent including iso-octane, the glycol stream is fractionated to remove the portion of the water from the glycol stream.The claim scope centres on a mixed triethylene/tetraethylene glycol stream and an iso-octane-assisted regeneration step — a specific combination rather than glycol dehydration broadly.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5407466A | Sour gas treatment process including membrane and non-membrane treatment steps | 115 |
| 2 | US5401300A | Sour gas treatment process including dehydration of the gas stream | 113 |
| 3 | US5407467A | Sour gas treatment process | 83 |
| 4 | US7449049B2 | Method of purifying a natural gas by mercaptan adsorption | 70 |
| 5 | US4743282A | Selective processing of gases containing olefins by the mehra process | 70 |
| 6 | US5558698A | Acid gas fractionation process | 69 |
| 7 | US5556449A | Acid gas fractionation process for fossil fuel gasifiers | 67 |
| 8 | US3837143A | Simultaneous drying and sweetening of wellhead natural gas | 63 |
| 9 | US6080704A | Glycols as gas hydrate inhibitors in drilling, drill-in, and completion fluids | 59 |
| 10 | US6183540B1 | Method and apparatus for removing aromatic hydrocarbons from a gas stream prior to an amine-based gas sweeten… | 58 |
Citation counts favour older documents simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns matter more than the raw counts: where claim density already sits, how concentrated ownership is at the top, and which years actually reflect settled activity.
Ownership is top-heavy but not closed
The five leading assignees combined hold 39.1% of the 460 records in scope, and the top ten hold 56.5%. That leaves a substantial long tail of single- and few-filing entrants below tenth place, meaning the field is concentrated at the top without being locked up.
Recent growth is real, not an artefact
Filings across the field doubled from 5 in 2021 to 10 in 2024, a genuine rebuild after the 2017 peak. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as incomplete rather than declining — publication lag means the newest filings have not all surfaced yet.
Separation process claims are the densest ground
More than half of all 460 records touch B01D separation processes, making that the most contested claim space in the field. C10L (fuels) and E21B (wells) trail well behind, suggesting less crowded — though still active — adjacent ground.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to glycol dehydration units, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the room to move sits
The ranking below covers 100 companies as returned by the data endpoint — not a curated top-50 or top-100, but the full set the search produced. Recent-year momentum for individual assignees should be read cautiously given the same publication lag that affects the field-wide trend.
A clear single leader, then a steep drop-off
The leading assignee holds 71 records, well ahead of fifth place at 23 and tenth place at 11. That gap defines the shape of this field: one dominant filer, a mid-tier of active operators, and a long tail below.
Even active filers show thin recent-year counts
Genesis Systems LLC recorded 1 filing in the latest year, down 50% year-on-year, while several other tracked assignees show zero in the latest year. This is consistent with publication lag rather than necessarily a real pullback in R&D activity.
Collaboration is limited and mostly inventor-linked
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings look more like named-inventor linkages within a single corporate filer than cross-company collaboration. Formal joint filing is not yet a common strategy in this field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| GENESIS SYSTEMS LLC | 1 | -50% |
| Equinor Energy AS | 0 | — |
| TotalEnergies SE | 0 | — |
| DIOXYCLE | 0 | -100% |
| Linde AG | 0 | — |
| BABCOCK JOHN A | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company | 0 | — |
| MADDOCKS JAMES | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape data points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio positioning or identifying open claim space.
Map claims against the leader's 71-record portfolio
With one assignee holding 71 of 460 records, a freedom-to-operate review should start there before checking the mid-tier and long tail.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest draft claims against the under-claimed sub-areas
Stripping gas injection control and BTEX emission capture from regeneration vents show lower claim density than B01D broadly — worth a targeted novelty check.
Run a novelty search in EurekaWatch 2025-2026 filings as they publish
Given the 18-month publication lag, the field's real 2025 activity will only become visible over the next reporting cycles.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaFrequently asked questions
This landscape covers 460 published patent families filed or published between 2015 and 2026 that match glycol dehydration and contactor-related search terms. The figure reflects records matching a specific search string tied to glycol contactors, water dew point, reboiler limits, stripping gas injection, glycol carryover and BTEX emission control, so a broader or narrower search string would return a different count. Treat this as the scope of the dataset rather than a definitive count of all glycol dehydration patents worldwide.
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies, with the leading filer holding 71 of the 460 records in scope and the top five combined holding 39.1%. That leaves a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so the field has a dominant filer plus a wide base of smaller and occasional filers rather than a tight oligopoly. Names appear in the ranked table on this page rather than repeated here, since the exact order matters more than a summary list.
Filings across the field doubled from 5 in 2021 to 10 in 2024, which is the clearest recent growth signal in the data. The peak year overall was 2017 at 33 filings, and activity cooled after that before rebuilding. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower, but that is expected: publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so those years are still filling in rather than showing an actual decline.
B01D, the separation-processes classification, appears in 57.2% of the 460 records in scope, making it the densest claim area by far. C10L (fuels) follows at 27.8% and E21B (wells and drilling) at 15.7%. Because a single patent can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, and they should be read as claim density per class rather than as shares of a fixed pie.
The sub-areas with lower documented claim density relative to core separation-process filings include stripping gas injection control, glycol carryover mitigation hardware, BTEX emission capture from regeneration vents, and structured packing contactor geometry. These sit below the density seen in B01D and C10L broadly, suggesting more room for a specific, well-drafted claim. A proper freedom-to-operate search against the leading assignees' portfolios is still necessary before relying on any of these as open ground.
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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.
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.