Hydrogen Flame Detection Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (132 records) with 2024 (109) — 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 2,065 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the hydrogen flame detection patent record actually shows
Hydrogen flame detection sits at the intersection of combustion safety and sensing: burners and reformers that run on hydrogen need a reliable way to confirm a flame is present and behaving as expected, because hydrogen flames are largely invisible and detection failure is a direct safety hazard. The 2,065 records in scope span classical flame-rod and ionization sensing through to optical and material-analysis approaches, filed by everyone from burner OEMs to fuel-cell system integrators. The concentration figures below matter for freedom-to-operate work: this is not a field owned by two or three players, it is a wide field with one moderately sized leader and a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so any read of the most recent one or two years understates real filing activity. The safer read is the 2021-to-2024 window, which is treated here as the last complete comparison period.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,065-record set: how filing volume has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A single peak year, then a pullback
Annual filings rose from 54 in 2017 to a peak of 168 in 2023. The 2021-to-2024 comparison shows a 17% decline in that window; because publication lag means 2025 and 2026 records are still arriving, this should be read as a plateau after a peak rather than a confirmed downturn.
Sensing dominates over combustion hardware
G01N (material analysis and testing) alone covers 52.4% of the 2,065 records, far ahead of F23N combustion control (7.0%), F23D burners (6.4%) and H01M fuel cells (4.7%). Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,065 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hydrogen Safety & Detection: Hydrogen Flame Detection Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe record that anchors hydrogen burner flame-rod claims
US7419733B2 — Fuel cell system having a burner with a flame detection rod therein
The patent covers a fuel cell system in which a reformer converts hydrocarbon fuel into hydrogen, and a burner for the reformer burns hydrogen discharged from the fuel cell using a flame-rod detection means built into the burner itself, avoiding the need to supply the burner with additional raw fuel just to run flame-off detection.Assigned to JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation, published 2008-09-02.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130201316A1 | System and method for server based control | 1,727 |
| 2 | US20060243944A1 | Compositions comprising a fluoroolefin | 697 |
| 3 | WO2006094303A2 | Compositions comprising a fluoroolefin | 683 |
| 4 | US20060243945A1 | Compositions comprising a fluoroolefin | 477 |
| 5 | US20050269254A1 | [Air and Water Purifying System And Filter Media] | 147 |
| 6 | US20210075860A1 | System and method for server based control | 143 |
| 7 | WO2019043446A1 | A method and apparatus for collecting and using sensor data from a vehicle | 133 |
| 8 | US4088986A | Smoke, fire and gas alarm with remote sensing, back-up emergency power, and system self monitoring | 130 |
| 9 | US4968885A | Method and apparatus for introduction of liquid effluent into mass spectrometer and other gas-phase or partic… | 116 |
| 10 | US20080251724A1 | Gas and/or flame imaging system | 115 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations within this searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence, not of present-day relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Four read-outs from the ranking, the trend and the technology split, framed for decisions rather than description.
No single assignee controls the field
The leading assignee holds 46 records and the top five combined reach only 178, or 8.6% of all 2,065 records in scope. That spread means freedom-to-operate risk is distributed across many small portfolios rather than concentrated in a handful of blocking players.
A peak has already passed, not a collapse
Filings rose to a peak of 168 in 2023 after climbing from 54 in 2017, then eased in the 2021-to-2024 comparison window by 17%. Given the 18-month publication lag, 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as confirming a further decline.
Sensing method, not burner hardware, is where claims cluster
Over half of records touch G01N material analysis and testing, well ahead of combustion control, burner design or fuel-cell classes. Filers are protecting detection methods more heavily than the mechanical systems the detection sits inside.
China and the US anchor filing volume
China accounts for 674 records and the United States 312, with Europe, Japan, WIPO and the UK trailing behind. A filing strategy built only around US and EPO coverage misses the largest single receiving office in this dataset.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydrogen safety & detection: hydrogen flame detection patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the field as filed. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific assignees.
Check freedom-to-operate against the representative claim
US7419733B2's flame-rod-in-burner claim is a reference point for reformer burner design; any new sensing mechanism inside a hydrogen burner should be checked against it and its family before committing to a design.
Explore this record in EurekaTrack the ranked leaders as design-around targets
With the top five holding only 8.6% of records, no single competitor portfolio needs to be cleared alone; a systematic review across the ranked leaders is more useful than focusing on one assignee.
Run an assignee analysis in EurekaWatch the classes outside G01N for open claim space
Combustion control, burner design and fuel-cell-specific classes carry far lower filing density than material analysis and testing, which is where new claim scope is more likely to be available.
Search white space in EurekaCommon questions on hydrogen flame detection patents
The ranking covers 100 companies and no single filer dominates the field: the leading assignee holds 46 of the 2,065 records in scope, and the top five combined reach only 178 records, or 8.6% of the total. This is a fragmented landscape rather than one controlled by two or three companies. Practically, that means competitive monitoring needs to cover a broad set of mid-sized filers rather than a small number of dominant players.
Filing rose from 54 records in 2017 to a peak of 168 in 2023, then the 2021-to-2024 comparison shows a 17% decline. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as proof the field is shrinking further. The safest current read is a plateau following a 2023 peak, not a confirmed downturn.
The dominant class is G01N, material analysis and testing, which appears on 52.4% of the 2,065 records in scope, reflecting how much of this field is protected as a sensing or measurement method rather than as burner hardware. F23N combustion control and F23D burners follow at 7.0% and 6.4% respectively, with H01M fuel cells, G08B alarm systems, C01B inorganic compounds and G01J radiation measurement each covering smaller single-digit shares. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should not be summed.
China is the largest receiving office in this dataset with 674 records, followed by the United States at 312 and the European Patent Office at 224. Japan, WIPO's PCT route, and the United Kingdom follow at 170, 132 and 90 records respectively. A filing or clearance strategy limited to the US and Europe alone would miss the largest single jurisdiction in the field.
US7419733B2, assigned to JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation and published in 2008, claims a fuel cell system whose reformer burner uses a flame-detection rod built into the burner itself, avoiding the need for a separate raw-fuel supply just to perform flame-off detection. It is a foundational reference point for reformer burner designs that integrate flame-rod sensing rather than external detection hardware. Anyone designing a hydrogen reformer burner with rod-based flame sensing should check their design against this claim and its patent family before filing.
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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.