Industrial Heat Pump Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 57.3% of the field sits with five filers. Top 5 combined account for 125 of 218 records in scope, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants behind them.
- Refrigerant chemistry, not hardware, dominates the claims. C09K materials for miscellaneous applications appear in 58.7% of records — ahead of F25B refrigeration and heat pump hardware at 56.9%.
- Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has not recovered. From 10 records at the 2019 peak, the trend flattens through a 2022 midpoint of zero, before the usual publication lag understates the most recent years.
What the industrial heat pump patent record shows
Industrial heat pumps for process heat sit at the intersection of two claim traditions: refrigerant and working-fluid chemistry filed under C09K, and heat pump and refrigeration hardware filed under F25B. The search captures 218 published records spanning 2015 to the 2026 data cut-off, drawn from applicants ranging from established refrigerant chemical suppliers to university labs and single-invention filers.
Filing is concentrated: the ranked leader alone accounts for 52 records, and the top five combined hold 57.3% of the 218 records in scope. China is the largest receiving office by a wide margin, ahead of the United States, EPO, WIPO and Japan, which points to where enforcement and freedom-to-operate diligence matters most.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 218 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 5 records in 2017 to a peak of 10 in 2019, then flattened, with the 2022 midpoint at zero. The final year or two is always understated because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the recent flat line should not yet be read as the field closing.
IPC subclass composition
C09K materials claims (58.7% of records) and F25B refrigeration/heat pump hardware claims (56.9%) are the two dominant subclasses and frequently co-occur on the same record. Domestic heating (F24D, 8.7%), water heaters (F24H, 5.5%) and steam plant classes (F01K, F22B, each under 5%) trail well behind, marking them as adjacent rather than core claim territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 218 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Industrial Heat Pumps for Process Heat with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about industrial heat pumps for process heat and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a recent representative filing
US20250362063A1 — Systems and methods for a high temperature heat pump
A high temperature heat pump apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus can include a first compression stage including a first evaporator that evaporates a first working fluid to form a first vapor, a first compressor that compresses the first vapor to increase the pressure of the first vapor, and a condenser that condenses the first vapor having increased pressure to deliver heat. The apparatus can include a second compression stage including a second evaporator that evaporates a second working fluid using the heat from the condenser of the first compression stage, where the second evaporator evaporates the second working fluid to form a second vapor, and a second compressor that compresses…Filed by Karman Industries Inc., published 2025-11-27 — a two-stage cascade architecture using separate working fluids per stage.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6913076B1 | High temperature heat pump | 45 |
| 2 | CN101135503A | 一种带有涡流管的高温热泵系统 | 41 |
| 3 | JP2015143359A | Azeotropic mixture-like composition, heat transmission composition, detergent, high temperature heat pump dev… | 35 |
| 4 | US20130104575A1 | Use of compositions comprising 1,1,1,2,3-pentafluoropropane and optionally z-1,1,1,4,4,4-hexafluoro-2-butene … | 35 |
| 5 | CN102261703A | 采用热管热回收和超声强化再生的转轮除湿空调系统 | 32 |
| 6 | US20160137895A1 | Use of alkyl perfluoroalkene ethers and mixtures thereof in high temperature heat pumps | 30 |
| 7 | CN102297525A | 太阳能-沼液余热回收式热泵高温厌氧发酵加温系统与运行控制方法 | 24 |
| 8 | US20130160478A1 | Use of e-1,1,1,4,4,5,5,5-octafluoro-2-pentene and optionally 1,1,1,2,3-pentafluoropropane in high temperature… | 23 |
| 9 | WO2014197290A1 | Use of alkyl perfluoroalkene ethers and mixtures thereof in high temperature heat pumps | 21 |
| 10 | US20130298581A1 | Producing heating using working fluids comprising z-1,1,1,4,4,4-hexafluoro-2-butene | 21 |
Citation counts favour older records simply by virtue of time in the corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking 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.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns in the data change how a freedom-to-operate or whitespace review should be scoped for this field.
A small group holds the core chemistry and cycle claims
With the leader alone at 52 records and the top five combined at 125 of 218, most of the occupied claim space sits with a handful of refrigerant and hardware specialists. New entrants filing in C09K or F25B should expect dense prior art from these filers specifically, not the field in general.
Chemistry claims lead hardware claims
C09K materials claims edge out F25B refrigeration hardware claims (56.9%), and the two overlap heavily on the same filings. This suggests refrigerant selection and blend composition, not compressor or cycle architecture, is the more heavily claimed axis of differentiation.
Activity has not grown past its 2019 peak
Filing volume reached 10 records in 2019 and has not returned to that level; the 2022 midpoint sits at zero. Recent-year momentum by the leading assignees also reads flat to declining, though the most recent one to two years are understated by publication lag.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to industrial heat pumps for process heat, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | The Chemours Company FC, LLC | 3 |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | KONTOMARIS KONSTANTINOS | 1 |
Only two co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, both linked to the same corporate family — most records here are filed by a single assignee rather than through joint development.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The ranked leader holds 52 records against a fifth-place figure of 9 and a tenth-place figure of 3 — a steep drop that separates a handful of established filers from a long tail of occasional entrants.
One filer dominates the leaderboard
The top-ranked assignee's count is more than five times the fifth-place figure, indicating a filer with a sustained, multi-year program rather than a single burst of activity. Recent-year momentum data shows this cooling to zero in the latest year, consistent with the field-wide publication-lag effect rather than a change in strategy.
Refrigerant chemical suppliers anchor the top tier
Several of the highest-ranked assignees trace to established refrigerant and specialty-chemical suppliers, consistent with C09K materials claims being the largest single subclass in the dataset. Their filings concentrate on working-fluid composition and blend claims rather than mechanical cycle design.
Most ranked assignees file only a handful of records
Past the top ten, filing counts drop to single digits and then singles — university labs, regional manufacturers and newer entrants like Karman Industries appear with one or a few records each. This is where technically narrow, defensible claims are more likely to still be open.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | 0 | — |
| The Chemours Company FC, LLC | 0 | — |
| Tianjin University | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| University of Maribor | 0 | — |
| CAUSEWAY ENERGIES LLC | 0 | — |
| Pan Ge | 0 | — |
| Beijing Lianliyuan Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up work rather than a single conclusion.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top five
With 57.3% of records held by five filers, any new refrigerant blend or cascade cycle claim should be checked against this group's granted claims first, not the field as a whole.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaWatch the China filing concentration
China accounts for 99 of the receiving-office filings in this set, well ahead of the US, EPO, WIPO and Japan. Regional filing strategy and enforcement exposure should be weighted accordingly.
Explore regional filing detail in EurekaTrack whether the 2019 peak was a one-off
Filing has not returned to its 2019 level and the 2022 midpoint sits at zero; because the most recent one to two years are understated by publication lag, this trend is worth revisiting as later data lands.
Set an alert on this technology in EurekaCommon questions on industrial heat pump patents
Filing is concentrated at the top: the leading assignee in this dataset holds 52 of the 218 records in scope, and the top five combined account for 57.3% of all records. The drop-off is steep — fifth place sits at 9 records and tenth place at just 3 — so beyond the leading group, filing activity spreads thinly across 76 ranked companies. Most of the concentrated activity traces to refrigerant chemical suppliers filing under the C09K materials classification.
C09K covers materials for miscellaneous applications, which in this dataset largely means refrigerant and working-fluid composition claims, and it appears in 58.7% of the 218 records. F25B covers refrigeration and heat pump hardware — compressors, cycle architecture, evaporator and condenser design — appearing in 56.9% of records. Because a single patent can carry both classifications, these two categories overlap heavily rather than representing separate filer populations, and a new filing often needs to clear prior art in both.
The filing trend peaked at 10 records in 2019 and has not returned to that level since, with the 2022 midpoint at zero. This looks like a slowdown, but the most recent one to two years in any patent dataset are understated because publication typically lags the actual filing date by roughly 18 months. A clearer read on 2024-2026 activity will only be possible once those applications finish publishing.
Relative to the dense C09K and F25B claim space, subclasses like F01K (steam and thermal power plants), F22B (steam generation and boilers) and F02G (hot-gas and external-combustion engines) each sit at or under 5% of the 218 records. This suggests cascade or multi-stage cycles that bridge heat pump and steam-generation claims, and hybrid retrofit architectures that integrate with existing gas boiler plant, are comparatively open. Any first claim in these areas should still be checked against the top assignees' broader chemistry and hardware patents, since overlap is common.
China is the dominant receiving office in this dataset with 99 records, followed by the United States at 26, the European Patent Office at 19, WIPO/PCT filings at 19, Japan at 12, and Australia at 8. This distribution suggests that domestic Chinese filing volume, rather than international PCT strategy, is currently driving most of the activity captured in this search.
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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.