Hydrogen Compression and Refueling Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2022 at 14 families, then declined — this branch is past its filing surge, not still climbing.
- China accounts for 22 of the 52 tracked filings, more than double the next-largest receiving office, DK at 9.
- One co-assignee pair — a state energy group and its clean-energy research institute — shares 8 filings, the tightest collaboration link in the dataset.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks 52 published patent families filed against hydrogen compression, refueling stations and dispensers, narrowed to filings that also address compressor reliability, precooling, fill protocol, high-pressure storage or leak safety under IPC classes F17C5, F04B37 and F17C13. The scope is deliberately tight: it isolates the station-side hardware and control problem — how hydrogen gets from storage to a vehicle tank safely and within a fill-time target — rather than upstream electrolysis or fuel-cell stack work.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in any trend chart are undercounts of actual filing activity, not evidence that activity has stopped.
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Filing trend and classification mix
Two views of the same 52 families: when they were filed, and which technical subclasses they sit in.
Filing activity by year
Filings rose from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2022, then fell back — a pattern consistent with a technology area that saw a concentrated filing push around station rollout rather than sustained year-on-year growth.
IPC subclass composition
F17C (pressure vessels and gas storage) anchors the dataset at 52 of 52 records by definition of the search scope; heat-exchange classes F28D and F28F together account for 13 records, pointing to precooling and thermal management as the dominant secondary claim area, well ahead of pipeline (F17D, 7) or control (G05D, 2) classes.
Shares are the percentage of the 52 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hydrogen Compression and Refueling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hydrogen compression and refueling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this dataset
A hydrogen refueling station cooling system
The invention relates to a hydrogen refueling station comprising a hydrogen storage connected to a dispenser via a flow path, and a cooling system with a first cooling loop and heat exchanger thermally connected to the flow path, a chiller, a dry cooler connectable via a third cooling loop with a valve, and a thermal energy storage connectable via a fourth cooling loop with a valve, controlled to open and establish precooling conditions.Filed by Cavendish Hydrogen A/S, published 2025-06-05 as WO2025113760A1 — one of the most recent precooling-system filings in the dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2021083471A1 | A hydrogen refueling station and method for refueling a hydrogen vehicle | 16 |
| 2 | US20190184847A1 | Systems for validating a formula for dispensing hydrogen and methods thereof | 14 |
| 3 | US20220364680A1 | A hydrogen refueling station and method for refueling a hydrogen vehicle | 13 |
| 4 | CN219013995U | 一种冷能回收型液氢加氢站加注系统 | 12 |
| 5 | CN112344207A | 一种基于引射混压的液氢和高压气氢联合加氢系统 | 11 |
| 6 | CN115507296A | 一种回收BOG的液氢加氢站系统 | 9 |
| 7 | CN114893720A | 加氢站加氢预冷系统及方法 | 9 |
| 8 | CN117249390A | 一种氢气预冷加注系统、液氢加氢站及控制方法 | 6 |
| 9 | CN116428509A | 一种热增压和氢压机协同驱动的液氢增压加注系统 | 6 |
| 10 | CN115419822A | 利用仲正氢转化冷量的液氢储运型加氢站氢气加注系统 | 6 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the filing trend, classification mix and geographic split.
The surge has already passed
Filings climbed from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2022 and have since declined. That pattern usually marks a wave tied to a specific deployment push — station build-outs and associated safety-and-fill-protocol filings — rather than a technology still in its growth phase. New entrants filing now are working into a claim space that was most actively contested three to four years ago.
Precooling is the busiest secondary claim area
Beyond the core F17C storage-vessel scope that defines this search, heat-exchange classes F28D and F28F carry 13 of the 52 records between them — more than pipeline transport (F17D, 7) or control systems (G05D, 2). Thermal management of the dispensing line is where the densest secondary claim activity sits.
China leads by a wide margin, DK is a distant second
China's 22 filings are more than double DK's 9, with Europe (EPO) and the United States each at 7. Any freedom-to-operate check for a station deployment should weight China filings heavily, but the DK concentration signals a specific European commercial cluster worth watching separately.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydrogen compression and refueling, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and how tightly they cluster
Assignee activity in this dataset is concentrated around a small number of station operators, equipment makers and one strong institutional pairing.
One institutional pairing dominates collaboration
The tightest link in the dataset is between a state energy group and its affiliated clean-energy research institute, co-assigned on 8 filings. No other pair approaches that count, which suggests most other assignees are filing solo rather than through joint ventures.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet across the board
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the state energy group, its research institute, and Cavendish Hydrogen, shows zero filings in the latest year. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reads as an incomplete recent record rather than an actual stop in R&D.
Newer filers are working the precooling angle
Cavendish Hydrogen's 2025 filing on a multi-loop cooling system for a refueling station shows a newer entrant building specifically on thermal management rather than storage-vessel design — consistent with the broader dataset pattern of heat-exchange claims being the busiest secondary area.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Nell Hydrogen Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| China Energy Investment Corporation | 0 | — |
| Beijing Low-Carbon Clean Energy Institute | 0 | — |
| CAVENDISH HYDROGEN AS | 0 | — |
| EVERFUEL EUROPE AS | 0 | — |
| Zhejiang Zheneng Aerospace Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Zhengxing Hydrogen Electric Technology (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Honda Motor Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps for teams deciding where to file or where to watch.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on precooling claims
With 13 of 52 records touching heat-exchange classes, any new dispenser cooling-loop design should be checked against the existing F28D/F28F claim set before filing.
Explore precooling claims in EurekaWatch the China filing cluster closely
22 of 52 families originate in China, more than double any other office — a deployment-linked filing pattern worth tracking for competitive signals ahead of any station rollout.
Track China filings in EurekaInvestigate the state energy group and research institute pairing
An 8-filing co-assignee link is unusually tight for this dataset and suggests a coordinated R&D programme worth mapping in full.
Map assignee networks in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
Within this 52-family dataset, filing is concentrated but not dominated by a single company; the strongest link is a co-assignee pair — a state energy group and its affiliated clean-energy research institute — sharing 8 filings, the tightest collaboration in the set. Beyond that pairing, activity is spread across several station operators and equipment makers including Cavendish Hydrogen and Everfuel Europe, none of which shows a dominant filing count on its own. Anyone doing a competitive scan should treat this as a fragmented field with one clear institutional cluster rather than a single incumbent to design around.
Not on the trend shown here: filings rose from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2022, then declined. That pattern is more consistent with a filing wave tied to a specific station-deployment push than with a technology still in an active growth phase. The most recent years in any patent trend are also undercounted because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the true 2025–2026 picture will only become clear after that lag closes.
After the core pressure-vessel and gas-storage claims that define the search (F17C, all 52 records), heat-exchange apparatus and heat-exchanger details (F28D and F28F combined) account for 13 records — more than pipeline transport or control systems. That points to precooling and thermal management of the dispensing line as the busiest secondary claim area, and the area most worth checking before filing a new cooling-loop design.
China leads with 22 of the 52 tracked families, more than double Denmark's 9, with the European Patent Office and the United States each at 7 and WIPO PCT filings at 5. This geographic split suggests China is the primary filing venue for this technology at present, with a distinct secondary cluster around Denmark that is worth investigating separately given its concentration relative to the EPO and US totals.
WO2025113760A1, filed by Cavendish Hydrogen A/S and published mid-2025, claims a hydrogen refueling station cooling system built around a first cooling loop and heat exchanger connected to the dispensing flow path, a chiller, a dry cooler linked via a controlled third loop, and a thermal energy storage unit linked via a controlled fourth loop. The claims centre on how the controller opens specific valves to establish precooling conditions using stored thermal energy rather than direct mechanical refrigeration alone. Anyone designing a multi-loop precooling system for a dispenser should review this filing's valve-control logic specifically, since that is the narrower, more defensible part of the claim.
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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.