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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/hydrogen-storage-tanks-and-composite-vessels-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Hydrogen & Fuel CellsHydrogen storage tank patents: who holds the composite vessel claim space
- Filing activity peaked in 2020 and has not returned to that level, with the trend flat-to-declining through the most recent full years of data.
- Pressure vessel claims dominate the IPC mix, with F17C present in every record and only thin overlap into seals, fuel cells and heat exchange.
- Co-filing is rare and concentrated, with just five co-assignee pairs across the whole dataset, the strongest linking two affiliated steel and container makers.
25
Published Records
US
Leading Jurisdiction
11
Active Filers Ranked
2020
Peak Filing Year
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing hydrogen storage tanks, Type IV pressure vessels and composite hydrogen cylinders, filtered to records that specifically claim liner permeation control, filament winding, burst pressure performance, cycling fatigue or fast-fill temperature management. The IPC scope centres on F17C (pressure vessels and gas storage) with cross-checks against B29C53 (filament winding processes) and F17C13 (vessel fittings and details).
Coverage runs from 2015 through the middle of 2026, with 25 published families in the assignee ranking. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate actual filing activity.
Filing activity by year, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hydrogen Storage Tanks and Composite Vessels covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 25-family dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A peak in 2020, then a flat-to-declining line
Filings rose to 7 in 2020, the peak year in this dataset, before easing back. The 2022 midpoint sits at 0, and the years since have not recovered to the 2020 level. Read the tail years cautiously: publication lag means 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in.
F17C carries the dataset; everything else is a minor cross-filing
Every one of the 25 records touches F17C, pressure vessels and gas storage, confirming this is a tightly scoped vessel-engineering dataset rather than a broad hydrogen-systems one. The next largest group, F16J (seals and gaskets, 7 records), points to liner and boss sealing as the main adjacent claim area, with fuel cells (H01M), vehicle propulsion (B60K) and heat exchange (F25B, F28D, F28F) each appearing only two or three times.
Shares are the percentage of the 25 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hydrogen Storage Tanks and Composite Vessels covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records in this dataset
Representative Filing
Production control system for hydrogen storage tank
HEFEI GENERAL MACHINERY RESEARCH INSTITUTE CO., LTD.
A production control system for a hydrogen storage tank includes an operating unit, a design terminal and a processor. The design terminal runs a finite element simulation command to derive a target laying parameter for filament winding; the processor turns that parameter into an operation command for the winding mechanism and can trigger an optimization command in response to simulation feedback.Filed by Hefei General Machinery Research Institute, published 2025-07-24 — abstract trimmed for length.
Highest-citation records
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050188847A1 | Hydrogen storage tank | 61 |
| 2 | US7326281B2 | Hydrogen storage tank | 25 |
| 3 | US20160091140A1 | Hydrogen storage tank (as amended) | 24 |
| 4 | CN110173619A | 一种铝、钢复合层储氢罐及其为芯的纤维缠绕增强储氢瓶 | 13 |
| 5 | WO2020264585A1 | End boss for type iv pressure vessel | 12 |
| 6 | US20220373085A1 | End boss for type iv pressure vessel | 8 |
| 7 | EP2990714A1 | accumulator | 7 |
| 8 | CA2525171A1 | Pressure vessel hydrogen storage tank and method for manufacturing pressure vessel | 7 |
| 9 | US20210129662A1 | Hydrogen storage tank having a nanoporous breather layer | 5 |
| 10 | US20250237352A1 | Production control system for hydrogen storage tank | 3 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older US filings lead this list; treat them as markers of influence within this corpus rather than of current commercial relevance.
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.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hydrogen Storage Tanks and Composite Vessels covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the filing pattern says about the field
Three findings that shape where a competitive review or a freedom-to-operate check should start.
Filing Trend
Peak 2020 · 7 filings
then flat-to-declining
Activity has not returned to its 2020 high
Filings climbed to a peak of 7 in 2020 and the 2022 midpoint reads 0, with no clear recovery through the years since. That pattern is consistent with a field where the core vessel-construction claims were staked out early and later entrants are filing narrower, more incremental improvements rather than foundational designs.
Read 2025–2026 as provisional given publication lag.
IPC Concentration
F17C · 25 of 25 records
every record
This is a vessel-engineering dataset, not a systems one
F17C appears in every single record, meaning the claim language is anchored on pressure vessel structure and gas storage mechanics rather than on the fuel cell or vehicle systems those tanks feed into. F16J's presence in 7 records marks sealing and liner-boss interfaces as the most active adjacent claim area.
Cross-filing into H01M, B60K and heat-exchange subclasses stays in single digits.
Co-filing
5 co-assignee pairs
across 25 families
Collaboration is rare and mostly intra-group
Only five co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset. The strongest link connects two affiliated steel and container businesses, and a second pair connects a vehicle maker with its loom-and-textile affiliate — both look like intra-group filing splits rather than arm's-length joint development.
Most families in this dataset carry a single assignee.
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Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydrogen storage tanks and composite vessels, with the prior art for and against each one.
Collaboration signal
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| JFE Steel Corporation | JFE Container Co., Ltd. | 6 |
| Toyota Industries Corporation | Toyota Motor Corporation | 2 |
| Linamar Corporation | SANCHES JORDAN | 1 |
| Linamar Corporation | KOVALESKY VLADIMIR | 1 |
| SANCHES JORDAN | KOVALESKY VLADIMIR | 1 |
With co-filing this thin, most competitive intelligence in this space has to be built assignee-by-assignee rather than by mapping alliance networks.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hydrogen Storage Tanks and Composite Vessels covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players & White Space
Who is filing, and where the claim space is still open
Recent-year momentum across the top assignees reads flat: none of the leading filers in this dataset show activity in the latest year, reinforcing the post-2020 slowdown seen in the trend chart. That makes this a good moment to check which sub-areas remain thinly claimed rather than which company is currently pulling ahead.
Momentum
0 in latest year
across all top assignees
No leading filer shows current-year activity
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the strongest steel-and-container pairing and the major automotive names in this dataset, shows zero filings in the latest year on record. Combined with the flat post-2020 trend, this suggests the field is between filing waves rather than actively consolidating.
Momentum figures are most reliable one to two years back from the cut-off.
Concentration
25 families total
small, focused dataset
A small dataset means individual filings carry weight
With only 25 families in the ranking, any single new filing shifts the competitive picture more than it would in a larger corpus. Teams tracking this space should monitor individual publications directly rather than relying on aggregate share.
United States (12) and EPO (6) are the dominant receiving offices.
Jurisdiction
US 12 · EPO 6 · CA 4
receiving offices
Filing is concentrated in three offices
The United States, the European Patent Office and Canada together account for the bulk of receiving-office activity, with China, WIPO/PCT and Austria each contributing a single record. A freedom-to-operate check for these three jurisdictions would cover most of the documented claim space.
Single-country filings from AT and CN mark isolated regional interest.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| JFE Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Linamar Corporation | 0 | — |
| JFE Container Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Toyota Industries Corporation | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | — |
| Hefei General Machinery Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hydrogen Storage Tanks and Composite Vessels covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to a field with an early filing peak and thin recent activity — the open questions are about depth, not just headcount.
Check the F16J sealing overlap in detail
Seven records cross into seals and gaskets alongside the core F17C claims. Reviewing exactly which liner-boss configurations these cover would clarify whether the sealing sub-area is genuinely open or already staked out by the same core assignees.
Explore sealing claims in EurekaWatch for the next filing wave
With every top assignee at zero in the latest year and publication lag still working through 2025–2026, a renewed filing wave could appear in the data before it appears in market news.
Set up monitoring in EurekaMap the two intra-group co-filing pairs
Both strong co-assignee pairs in this dataset appear to link affiliated entities rather than independent collaborators. Confirming that structure would sharpen any competitor map built from this data.
Trace assignee relationships in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hydrogen Storage Tanks and Composite Vessels covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on hydrogen storage tank patents
A Type IV pressure vessel is a composite hydrogen storage tank built around a polymer liner that is fully wrapped in filament-wound carbon fibre for structural strength, with the liner providing gas permeation resistance rather than load-bearing capacity. This search was scoped specifically to Type IV vessels because they are the dominant design for high-pressure onboard hydrogen storage in vehicles, which is why F17C, the pressure vessel and gas storage IPC subclass, appears in all 25 records in this dataset. Filament winding and liner permeation claims sit at the centre of the technical scope for that reason.
This dataset shows filing activity rising to a peak of 7 records in 2020 before falling back, with the 2022 midpoint at 0 and no clear recovery since. The evidence here does not include the underlying commercial drivers, so any explanation beyond the filing pattern itself would be speculation. What can be said reliably is that the post-2020 years have not matched that peak, and the most recent one to two years are still understated due to publication lag.
The dataset's assignee ranking shows filing concentrated among a small group, including affiliated steel-and-container and automotive-group pairings, but every one of the leading assignees tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year. That combination, a concentrated leaderboard with flat current momentum, suggests the field is between active filing waves rather than in the middle of a consolidation race. Anyone building a competitor list should check filing dates directly rather than assuming current market position from historical counts alone.
Based on the IPC composition, the areas with the thinnest coverage relative to the core F17C vessel claims are boss-liner sealing interfaces, fast-fill thermal management, and vessel-integrated heat exchange, each appearing in only two to seven records against 25 core vessel filings. These are not guaranteed to be open, since a small record count can also mean a technique has simply not been patented yet because it is hard to differentiate. A targeted novelty search within each branch is the necessary next step before treating any of them as clear white space.
Citation counts in a search-scoped corpus like this one tend to favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations, so the most-cited records here skew toward filings from the mid-2000s through the mid-2010s. That makes citation count a reasonable signal of historical influence on how the field's claim language developed, but a poor proxy for which patents matter most to a company filing or reviewing freedom-to-operate today. Recent filings, including the most recent records in this dataset, will always show low citation counts regardless of their actual significance.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Hydrogen Storage Tanks and Composite Vessels covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.