LNG Boil Off Gas Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
LNG Boil Off Gas Handling Patents: Filing Trends and the Leading Assignees
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 49.7% of all 330 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 63.6% — a small group controls most of the filed claim space. Filings rose to a peak of 39 in 2019, then declined; the 2021-to-2024 span shows a -79% drop from 39 to 8 filings. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than as evidence of a continued slide.
- 1HANWHA OCEAN CO LTD (KR)91
- 2HD HYUNDAI HEAVY IND CO LTD30
- 3FLUOR TECH CORP16
- 4BATTELLE ENERGY ALLIANCE LLC15
- 5EXPANSION ENERGY LLC12
See the full lng boil off gas handling analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on LNG boil off gas patents
Who are the leading patent holders in LNG boil off gas handling?
The assignee ranking covers 78 companies drawn from 330 records, and it is concentrated: the top 5 hold 49.7% of all records and the top 10 hold 63.6%. The single leading assignee holds 91 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 12. This pattern is typical of shipbuilders and gas majors that have run sustained, multi-year filing programmes around tank design and BOG reliquefaction rather than a fragmented field of one-off filers.
What technology areas do LNG boil off gas patents cover?
Filings cluster most heavily around F17C, pressure vessels and gas storage, which appears in 72.4% of the 330 records in scope. Marine vessel design (B63B) follows at 34.2%, and gas liquefaction and separation (F25J) at 14.5%. Smaller but still meaningful shares sit in fuel supply, container design and marine propulsion, showing that BOG handling touches both the tank itself and the systems around it.
Is patent filing activity in this field growing or slowing?
Filings peaked at 39 in 2019 and fell to 8 by 2024, a -79% decline over that three-year span, using 2024 as the most recent complete year. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend chart are still filling in and should not be read as confirmation the field is still shrinking. The honest reading is that the core claim space filled up quickly after 2019 and filing has since normalised at a lower rate.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on LNG Boil Off Gas Handling covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.