Hydrotreating ULSD Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 47.5% concentration. The top five assignees alone account for 578 of the 1,218 records in scope — nearly half the field sits with a handful of refiners and licensors.
- Filing peaked in 2017. Volume was 30 that year and had fallen to 1 by 2024, a -95% swing from 2021's 19 filings — though 2025-26 figures are still filling in as publications lag filing.
- C10G dominates, B01J is close behind. 92.9% of records touch hydrocarbon oil refining classifications and 50.6% touch catalysis, showing the field is defined as much by catalyst chemistry as by process engineering.
Filing growth compares 2021 (19 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 1,218 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent activity in hydrodesulfurization and hydrotreating technology aimed at ultra-low sulfur diesel and gasoline, spanning claims on refractory sulfur species removal, hydrogen partial pressure control, catalyst activity ranking, cetane improvement and aromatics saturation. The 1,218 records in scope run from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, capturing both the tail end of a mature wave of catalyst patents and the early revamp-era filings that followed tightening fuel-sulfur regulation.
Filing behaviour here looks less like an emerging field and more like a settled one being re-litigated at the margins: a small set of refiners and technology licensors hold the foundational hydrocracking and multistage hydroprocessing patents, while more recent filings cluster around unit revamp and catalyst formulation refinements rather than new process architectures.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,218 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A field past its filing peak
Filings rose to a peak of 30 in 2017, then declined; the three-year span from 2021 (19) to 2024 (1) shows a -95% drop. 2024 is the most recent year with a reasonably complete publication record — 2025 and 2026 will fill in further as publication catches up to filing, typically an 18-month lag.
Refining and catalysis dominate the classification mix
C10G (hydrocarbon oils and refining) appears on 92.9% of the 1,218 records and B01J (catalysis) on 50.6%, confirming this is fundamentally a catalyst-and-process field. Separation (B01D, 3.4%), fuels (C10L, 2.5%) and organic chemistry methods (C07B, 1.0%) appear far less often, marking them as adjacent rather than core.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,218 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hydrotreating for Ultra-Low Sulfur Fuels with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hydrotreating for ultra-low sulfur fuels and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited foundational filings
US7005057B1 — Hydrocracking process for the production of ultra low sulfur diesel
A catalytic hydrocracking process for ultra low sulfur diesel in which a hydrocarbonaceous feedstock is hydrocracked at elevated temperature and pressure, with the hydrocracking zone effluent hydrogen-stripped at essentially the same pressure to yield a first gaseous and first liquid hydrocarbonaceous stream. The gaseous stream is routed to a desulfurization zone and partially condensed to separate a hydrogen-rich gas from a second liquid stream, integrating conversion and sulfur removal within a shared pressure envelope.Filed by UOP LLC, granted 2006-02-28 — a licensor patent rather than an operator patent, which matters for freedom-to-operate analysis.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5114562A | Two-stage hydrodesulfurization and hydrogenation process for distillate hydrocarbons | 307 |
| 2 | US6582590B1 | Multistage hydroprocessing using bulk multimetallic catalyst | 231 |
| 3 | US5597476A | Gasoline desulfurization process | 223 |
| 4 | US4127470A | Hydroconversion with group IA, IIA metal compounds | 170 |
| 5 | US5620592A | Low macropore resid conversion catalyst | 159 |
| 6 | US4212729A | Process for demetallation and desulfurization of heavy hydrocarbons | 141 |
| 7 | US4572778A | Hydroprocessing with a large pore catalyst | 140 |
| 8 | US4886594A | Hydrotreating catalyst and process | 137 |
| 9 | US6083378A | Process for the simultaneous treatment and fractionation of light naphtha hydrocarbon streams | 134 |
| 10 | US4225421A | Process for hydrotreating heavy hydrocarbons | 128 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a marker of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-outs from the filing pattern that matter more than the raw counts.
The core process art is locked up by a small group
Top 10 assignees combined account for 775 of the 1,218 records in scope. That degree of concentration means the foundational hydrocracking, multistage hydroprocessing and catalyst-formulation claims are unlikely to have room for a new entrant to file broad process patents — differentiation has to come from narrower catalyst or operating-condition claims.
Activity has fallen sharply from its 2017 peak
Volume dropped from 19 filings in 2021 to 1 in 2024. Recent-year momentum tables show the largest historical filers recording zero filings in the latest year, consistent with a field where the dominant chemistry is established and incremental filing has slowed rather than shifted to new players.
Process and catalyst claims dominate over adjacent fields
With C10G and B01J covering the large majority of records and everything else in single digits, filers concentrate almost entirely on refining process and catalytic chemistry rather than downstream fuel formulation, engine application or separation equipment.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydrotreating for ultra-low sulfur fuels, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the core patents
A short list of refiners and technology licensors accounts for nearly half the filings in scope, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entities behind them.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's record count is roughly four times that of the fifth-ranked filer (56), an unusually steep drop-off that signals a single dominant patent estate rather than a evenly split competitive field.
A steep drop-off after the top five
Fifth place holds 56 records and tenth place holds 34 — the gap between the leader and rank ten is large, but the mid-tier itself is fairly tightly bunched, suggesting several licensors and refiners maintain comparable-sized portfolios just below the top.
Joint filings cluster around national oil companies and their research institutes
The strongest co-assignee pairs link a national oil company with its dedicated catalysis research institute, and a refiner with its own petrochemical research institutes — a pattern typical of state-affiliated R&D structures rather than cross-company joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company | 0 | — |
| Catalytic Distillation Technologies | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | — |
| GULF RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CO | 0 | — |
| Mobil Oil Corporation | 0 | — |
| Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| UOP LLC | 0 | — |
| Xishan District Lvchun Plastic Products Factory | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to a mature core and a thin edge — two different starting points depending on what you're trying to do.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top 10
With 63.6% of records held by ten assignees, any new filing in the core hydrocracking or catalyst-formulation space should be checked against those portfolios specifically, not the field as a whole.
Run a freedom-to-operate scan in EurekaPressure-test claims in the under-claimed branches
Aromatics saturation kinetics and refractory sulfur species detection show materially thinner filing activity than the C10G/B01J core, which is where a narrower, well-drafted claim has more room to stand.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch for a second filing wave tied to revamp cycles
Falling new-process filings alongside a technology mix still dominated by C10G suggests future activity may come from unit revamp and retrofit claims rather than new base chemistry.
Track emerging filers in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranking with 229 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 56. The top five combined account for 578 of the 1,218 records in scope, or 47.5%, and the top ten account for 63.6%. This level of concentration means the foundational process and catalyst claims are held by a small number of refiners and technology licensors rather than being spread evenly across the industry.
No — filing activity peaked at 30 records in 2017 and has declined since, with a documented drop from 19 filings in 2021 to 1 in 2024, a -95% change. 2024 is the most recent year with a largely complete publication record; 2025 and 2026 figures will rise somewhat as publication catches up to filing, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Even accounting for that lag, the trend is a mature field with reduced new filing rather than an emerging one.
US7005057B1, assigned to UOP LLC and granted in 2006, claims a catalytic hydrocracking process for producing ultra low sulfur diesel, in which the hydrocracking effluent is hydrogen-stripped at essentially the same pressure as the hydrocracking zone and the resulting gaseous stream is routed into an integrated desulfurization step. Because it is a licensor patent rather than an operator patent, its relevance is to process design and licensing agreements rather than to a single refiner's operations. Anyone designing a hydrocracking-to-ULSD unit should check this claim's pressure-integration language specifically, as that is its distinguishing feature over conventional two-stage designs.
The IPC composition shows the field concentrated in C10G (92.9% of records) and B01J (50.6%), with adjacent areas like separation processes, fuel formulation and engine-side application appearing in the low single digits. Sub-areas named directly in the search scope but thin in filing volume — refractory sulfur species detection, catalyst activity ranking methodology, and cetane improvement additive chemistry — are worth checking against the top-10 assignees' portfolios before assuming they are open, since low volume can mean either genuine white space or simply narrower claim drafting by the same leading filers.
Citation counts accumulate over time, so records like US5114562A (cited 307 times) and US6582590B1 (cited 231 times) lead the table largely because they have been in the corpus longest, not necessarily because they represent the current state of the art. Newer filings simply have not had the years needed to accumulate comparable citation counts. Treat high citation counts as evidence of historical influence on how the field's claims were drafted, and cross-check against recent filing activity before deciding a technology route is still central.
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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.