The ranked leader holds 15 of the 345 records in scope, with the top 5 assignees combining for 15.9% of all records. That concentration is meaningful but not dominant: it points to a research core, largely made up of Chinese environmental science institutes and universities, rather than a single company controlling the field. Anyone assessing risk should also look at the long tail below the top 10, since filing counts drop quickly from 15 at the leader to 7 at tenth place.

Cement and solid-waste-disposal solidification claims are more heavily represented: B09B appears on 44.6% of the 345 records versus 26.4% for A62D, the chemical detoxification and chelating-agent class. C04B, the cement and ceramics subclass specifically, sits at 17.1%. This suggests encapsulation-style solidification has drawn more filing effort historically than additive-based chemical detoxification, though both routes are active.

The thinner IPC subclasses relative to the two leading ones — separation processes (B01D) and water treatment (C02F), both at 8.1% of records, and catalysis-based approaches (B01J) at 5.2% — carry less filing density than solidification or chelation claims. Chloride pre-washing steps, chelating-agent recovery and reuse, and metal recovery from stabilized residue are specific branches worth scoping before assuming the space is occupied.