Hydrogen Refueling Station Components Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Flat, not rising. filings peaked in 2023 at 118 and the 2022 midpoint of 103 shows growth stalling before that peak.
- No single owner dominates. the leader holds 70 records but the ranked top 5 account for only 8.5% of all 2,256 records in scope.
- Dispensing and storage hardware lead the claims. pipes and fittings (F16L) and pressure vessels (F17C) outrank valve and dispenser-specific classes.
What this landscape covers
This review covers 2,256 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that touch hydrogen refueling station components: dispenser nozzles, breakaway couplings, precooling systems, fill protocols, compressor reliability and leak detection. The search combines title/abstract terms for station hardware with claim-language filters on operational conditions like duty cycles, communication protocols and station availability metrics.
Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2026 count of 3 records understates actual filing activity for that year rather than signalling a real drop-off. The 2023 peak of 118 records is the most reliable recent read on filing intensity.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,256-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran at 82 in 2017, climbed to a peak of 118 in 2023, and sat at 103 by the 2022 midpoint — a pattern of flat-to-declining growth rather than sustained expansion, before the 2026 figure of 3 reflects publication lag rather than an actual pullback.
IPC subclass composition
F16L (pipes and pipe fittings) leads at 12.1% of the 2,256 records, ahead of A61M (body fluid devices) at 10.2% and F17C (pressure vessels and gas storage) at 6.9%. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum past 100% and should be read as claim density per subclass, not as a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,256 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hydrogen Refueling Station Components with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hydrogen refueling station components and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative recent filing
Leak detection system for reciprocating compressor of hydrogen refueling station
The disclosure describes a leak detection system for a reciprocating compressor at a hydrogen refueling station. It combines sensor data generated at the station with estimated values from a simulation model to capture the characteristics of hydrogen leaks, then applies machine learning to diagnose the leak point with high accuracy.Filed by Korea Gas Technology Corporation, published 2026-04-23 — one of the most recent records in scope.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7669747B2 | Washer for use with a surgical stapling instrument | 2,153 |
| 2 | US6172613B1 | Rearview mirror assembly incorporating vehicle information display | 934 |
| 3 | US6087953A | Rearview mirror support incorporating vehicle information display | 750 |
| 4 | US5960881A | Downhole surge pressure reduction system and method of use | 483 |
| 5 | US20090001128A1 | Washer for use with a surgical stapling instrument | 366 |
| 6 | US10034717B2 | System and method for breakaway clutching in an articulated arm | 328 |
| 7 | US5195978A | Rapid exchange over-the-wire catheter with breakaway feature | 301 |
| 8 | US4340049A | Breakaway valve | 255 |
| 9 | US20060091258A1 | Autonomous, back-packable computer-controlled breakaway unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) | 223 |
| 10 | US5314463A | Bipolar nerve electrode | 219 |
Citation counts reward older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current technical importance.
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 strategy
Three patterns in the dataset matter more than any single ranking: how concentrated ownership actually is, where claim density sits versus where it doesn't, and what recency in filings does and doesn't tell you.
Ownership is spread thin at the top
The leading assignee holds 70 records, but the five leading assignees combined account for only 8.5% of all 2,256 records in scope, and the top ten still cover just 13.3%. That leaves a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants rather than a field controlled by a handful of blocking players.
Growth flattened before the most recent peak
Filing counts moved from 82 in 2017 to a peak of 118 in 2023, but the 2022 midpoint of 103 shows the climb had already slowed before that peak. This is a maturing filing pattern, not an accelerating one — new entrants should expect denser prior art in the core hardware classes rather than open ground.
Piping and pressure-vessel hardware carry the densest prior art
F16L (pipes and pipe fittings) and F17C (pressure vessels and gas storage) rank above dispenser-specific classes like B67D and F16K, meaning the physical plumbing and containment side of stations is more heavily claimed than dispensing-specific mechanisms.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydrogen refueling station components, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked assignee list runs to 100 companies with no dominant blocker, alongside a small set of co-filing relationships and a handful of subclasses that carry comparatively little claim density for a station-hardware field.
A leader without a moat
The top-ranked assignee holds 70 records — clearly ahead of fifth place at 28 and tenth place at 19 — but that lead does not translate into field-wide control once the denominator is all 2,256 records.
Collaboration is limited and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest of them link the same handful of individual inventors to a small number of corporate assignees, rather than pointing to broad industry consortia.
Momentum has cooled across most tracked assignees
Several assignees that were active earlier in the window show zero filings in the latest year, including cases with a -100% year-on-year change. Combined with the overall flat trend, this suggests consolidation of activity rather than a widening field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Rite-Hite Holding Corporation | 1 | — |
| Nel Hydrogen AS | 0 | — |
| Baker Hughes Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| Baxter International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Antares Pharma, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Linear Health Sciences, LLC | 0 | — |
| CLA-VAL Co. | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps rather than a single conclusion: checking freedom-to-operate against the densest hardware classes, and testing the under-claimed functional areas before committing to a filing strategy.
Map freedom-to-operate against F16L and F17C
Piping, fittings and pressure-vessel claims carry the densest prior art in this dataset. Any new hardware design should be checked against this claim density before committing engineering resources.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTest the under-claimed functional gates
Station availability metrics, fill-protocol communication and compressor duty-cycle monitoring show comparatively light claim density relative to core hardware. These are candidate areas for a defensible first claim.
Run a white space search in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
No single company controls the field. The leading assignee holds 70 records, but the five leading assignees together account for only 8.5% of the 2,256 records in scope, and the top ten reach 13.3%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of companies with smaller portfolios, so ownership concentration is low compared with more mature hardware categories.
The trend is flat to declining rather than accelerating. Filings rose from 82 in 2017 to a peak of 118 in 2023, but the 2022 midpoint of 103 shows growth had already slowed before that peak. The very low 2026 count reflects publication lag, since patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing, not a real collapse in activity.
Pipes and pipe fittings (F16L) lead at 12.1% of the 2,256 records, ahead of pressure vessels and gas storage (F17C) at 6.9% and dispensing liquids (B67D) at 6.1%. This means the physical plumbing and containment hardware of a station is more heavily claimed than dispenser- or nozzle-specific mechanisms, which matters when scoping a freedom-to-operate search.
Functional areas tied to station operation — fill-protocol communication, precooling integration, compressor duty-cycle monitoring, breakaway coupling reliability and station availability metrics — show comparatively light claim density relative to the core hardware classes. These are good candidates for a first claim, though a full freedom-to-operate check against the denser F16L and F17C classes is still necessary before filing.
US20260110590A1, filed by Korea Gas Technology Corporation and published 2026-04-23, applies sensor data and simulation-model estimates with machine learning to diagnose leaks in a reciprocating compressor. It signals that leak detection and diagnostic software layered onto existing mechanical components is an active area, even as the overall filing trend for the field has flattened.
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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.