Hydrogen Shaft Furnace Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
A data-led review of hydrogen shaft furnace and hydrogen DRI patent filings: who leads, how concentrated the field is, filing trends since 2015, and where claim space is still open.
Filing growth = 2021 (34 records) → 2024 (29); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 195 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Hydrogen shaft furnace technology sits at the centre of the shift away from coke-based blast furnace ironmaking. This landscape covers 195 patent families filed or published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, spanning core shaft furnace process claims, gas-heating and recycling schemes, and adjacent reduction-gas chemistry. The scope is defined by claims combining shaft-furnace geometry with hydrogen-based direct reduction, iron ore reduction or hydrogen ironmaking language, filtered to C21B and C22B classifications.
Filing activity is concentrated among a small number of steelmakers, technology licensors and industrial gas suppliers, with a long tail of single- or double-filing entrants including universities and individual inventors. The mix of receiving offices — led by China, followed by Europe, the WIPO PCT route, the US, India and Australia — shows this is being filed as a genuinely international technology rather than a regional one.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 195-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend: a 2021 peak, not yet a decline
Annual filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 34 in 2021, then eased to 29 by 2024 — a -15% move over that three-year span. Records from 2025 onward are undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent tail-off should not yet be read as a slowdown in underlying R&D.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Technology composition: heavily anchored in C21B
C21B (iron production via blast/shaft furnace routes) appears in 93.8% of the 195 records, confirming this is fundamentally a shaft furnace ironmaking dataset. Secondary classes are thinner: C21C (steelmaking, 10.8%), C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds, 9.7%) and F27B (furnaces and kilns, 8.7%) point to downstream steelmaking integration, gas chemistry and furnace engineering as the main adjacent claim areas, with electrolytic routes (C25C, C25B) and furnace detail claims (F27D) each under 5%.
Shares are the percentage of the 195 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Method for recycling spent reduction gas in a direct reduction of iron ore system utilizing an electric gas heater (US20230052345A1)
A process for producing direct reduced iron with a hydrogen rich gas, using a non-fired reducing gas heater such as an electric heater to reach reduction temperatures. A shaft furnace reduces iron oxide with the hydrogen-rich gas; steam and particulates are scrubbed from the top gas; the scrubbed gas is processed through a membrane or PSA separation unit to recover a hydrogen-rich stream that is recycled back to the shaft furnace, reducing net hydrogen consumption.Filed by Midrex Technologies, Inc., 2023-02-16.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200385827A1 | Direct reduction process utilizing hydrogen | 53 |
| 2 | US4260412A | Method of producing direct reduced iron with fluid bed coal gasification | 49 |
| 3 | US20080087135A1 | Microwave heating method and apparatus for iron oxide reduction | 40 |
| 4 | CN112899427A | 一种使用电能加热的氢气竖炉炼铁系统及方法 | 27 |
| 5 | US2807535A | Method of and plant for reducing iron ore | 26 |
| 6 | WO2022023187A1 | Method for operating a metallurgic plant for producing iron products | 19 |
| 7 | WO2008051356A2 | Microwave heating method and apparatus for iron oxide reduction | 12 |
| 8 | CN115896383A | 一种等离子体辅助氨直接还原冶炼系统和方法 | 9 |
| 9 | US20230052345A1 | Method for recycling spent reduction gas in a direct reduction of iron ore system utilizing an electric gas h… | 9 |
| 10 | WO2023036475A1 | Method for producing direct reduced iron for an iron and steelmaking plant | 8 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not 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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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Four read-outs from the concentration, trend and geography data that matter for anyone deciding where to file or where to look for freedom to operate.
The core process claims are already staked out
Five assignees hold 64.1% of the 195 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 82.6%. New entrants working on baseline hydrogen shaft furnace geometry and gas-flow claims are filing into dense prior art held by a small group of incumbents.
Post-peak, not yet declining
Filings peaked at 34 in 2021 and eased to 29 by 2024, a -15% move. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025-26 counts are structurally incomplete and should not be read as evidence the field is cooling.
Furnace-side claims dominate; gas chemistry is secondary
C21B (iron production) sits in 93.8% of the 195 records. Steelmaking integration (C21C, 10.8%), reduction gas chemistry (C01B, 9.7%) and furnace/kiln engineering (F27B, 8.7%) are present but far thinner, marking them as less crowded adjacent branches.
China leads filing volume; Europe and PCT follow
China accounts for 45 filings, ahead of the EPO (23), WIPO PCT route (21), the US (19), India (18) and Australia (12). Examination and prior-art density will be encountered first and most heavily in the Chinese office.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydrogen metallurgy & dri: hydrogen shaft furnace patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white space identification, or tracking a specific competitor.
Map claim-level overlap against the top holders
With 64.1% of records held by five assignees, a claim chart against their granted families is the fastest way to find out whether a planned filing collides with existing coverage before drafting.
Run a claim comparison in Eureka →Track the co-assignee cluster around the strongest pairing
The strongest co-assignee pairing in this dataset runs at 10 shared records, suggesting an active joint-development relationship worth monitoring for new filings as they publish.
Set up a competitor watch in Eureka →Probe the thinner IPC branches for open claim space
Electrolytic routes (C25C, C25B) and furnace detail claims (F27D) each sit under 5% of records — worth a closer look before assuming the whole shaft furnace space is saturated.
Explore white space in Eureka →Common questions on hydrogen shaft furnace patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset lists 50 companies, with the top five together holding 64.1% of the 195 records in scope and the top ten holding 82.6%. That level of concentration means the leading holders — established DRI technology licensors, integrated steelmakers and industrial gas suppliers — already cover much of the core shaft-furnace process space. A newcomer should expect to encounter their granted claims early in any freedom-to-operate search rather than find open ground at the centre of the field.
Filing activity rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 34 records in 2021, then eased to 29 by 2024 — a -15% change over that span. Because patent publication typically lags the actual filing date by around 18 months, the lower counts for 2025 and 2026 in this dataset are an artefact of that lag, not proof of a real slowdown. The fairer read is that the field has passed its first filing peak and is consolidating around the 2021-2024 volume rather than declining outright.
The overwhelming majority — 93.8% of the 195 records — sit in IPC class C21B, iron production via blast or shaft furnace routes, confirming this is a furnace-and-reduction-process dataset at its core. Secondary coverage appears in steelmaking integration (C21C, 10.8%), reduction gas chemistry (C01B, 9.7%) and furnace or kiln engineering (F27B, 8.7%). Electrolytic production routes and furnace accessory details each appear in under 5% of records, marking them as comparatively under-claimed relative to the furnace process itself.
China is the largest single receiving office in this dataset with 45 filings, ahead of the European Patent Office (23), the WIPO PCT route (21), the United States (19), India (18) and Australia (12). This spread across six major offices, plus the PCT route, indicates filers are pursuing genuinely international protection rather than concentrating on a single home market. Anyone assessing regional risk or opportunity should expect the densest prior art and the most active examination in the Chinese office first.
US20230052345A1, filed by Midrex Technologies, describes a direct reduced iron process that uses an electric (non-fired) gas heater to bring hydrogen-rich reducing gas to reduction temperature, combined with a scrubber and membrane or PSA separation unit to recover and recycle hydrogen from the shaft furnace top gas. It is representative of a specific technical route within the broader hydrogen DRI landscape: electrically heated reducing gas with closed-loop hydrogen recovery, rather than combustion-heated or once-through gas schemes. Filers working on gas-heating or recycling architectures for shaft furnaces should review its claim scope closely given Midrex's position among the leading assignees in this field.
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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.