Marine Biofuels Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- A single leader holds 26 of the records in the assignee ranking, while fifth place sits at just 5 — a steep drop-off rather than an even spread.
- Filing fell -100% from 2021 (7) to 2024 (0), the last year the dataset treats as complete; 2025's count of 29 is a publication-lag artifact, not a rebound signal.
- C10L fuel-composition claims cover 45.8% of the 48 records, but G16B bioinformatics claims already reach 33.3% — machine learning is embedded deep in how this fuel chemistry gets claimed.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (0) — 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.
What this landscape covers
This review scopes 48 published records that combine marine biofuel or renewable marine fuel language with claims on feedstock conversion, fuel composition, product upgrading, conversion efficiency, fuel quality or gasification reactors. The set spans 2015 through the 2026-08-31 cut-off, so it captures both the refining chemistry side of marine fuel — hydrotreatment, distillation, blending with RMG or RMB — and a newer layer of computational and AI-assisted filings around synthetic biology platforms and experiment evaluation.
Records were pulled by IPC subclass and assignee to show where claim density has built up, who holds it, and which combinations of chemistry and data-driven methods remain open. Filing counts are read at the family level where possible so that continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction copies do not inflate any single assignee's apparent position.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 48-record set: filings by year, and the IPC subclasses those filings carry. Because a single record can sit in more than one subclass, the composition shares add up to well over 100%.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings sat at zero in 2017, rose through the early 2020s, and fell -100% from 7 in 2021 to 0 in 2024 — the last year this dataset treats as complete. The 2025 spike to 29 and the empty 2026 column reflect publication lag, not a change in filing behaviour; treat both as still filling in rather than as evidence of a rebound or a fresh decline.
IPC subclass composition
C10L (fuels and firelighters) leads at 45.8% of the 48 records, consistent with a corpus anchored in fuel composition claims. G16B (bioinformatics) at 33.3% and G06N (AI-based computing) at 8.3% show a meaningful data-science layer sitting alongside the chemistry — largely genetic and experiment-platform filings rather than combustion or blending work.
Shares are the percentage of the 48 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Marine Biofuels Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Renewable marine fuel compositions and methods for producing the same
The present invention relates to methods for preparing renewable marine fuel composition from a feedstock comprising tall oil pitch (TOP). The method comprises feeding the feedstock from a feed tank to a reactor wherein hydrotreatment is performed. The hydrotreated TOP obtained was fractionated in a distillation unit, and the fraction boiling above 360 °C at atmospheric pressure was suitable for renewable marine fuel as such or as an admixture with RMG or RMB.Filed by Neste, published as WO2022129681A1 — the second most-cited record in this landscape and the clearest example of a tall-oil-pitch route to marine fuel grade product.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20260018251A1 | Platforms, systems, and methods for genetic generalization in synthetic biology development | 5 |
| 2 | WO2022129681A1 | Renewable marine fuel compositions and methods for producing the same | 4 |
| 3 | US20260120809A1 | Platforms, systems, and methods to correct batch effects in machine learning training by iterative splitting | 1 |
| 4 | US20260134313A1 | Allocation of ai-based experiment evaluations | 1 |
| 5 | WO2023170039A1 | Renewable marine fuel and method of production | 1 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate them; read this table as a map of influence within the corpus, not as a ranking of current importance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (5 of 5 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the trend, the IPC composition and the citation table are read together.
One filer well ahead, then a fast drop-off
The ranking's leader sits at 26 records against a fifth-place figure of just 5. That gap says the core chemistry claims — feedstock conversion and fuel composition — are held tightly by a small group, while a longer tail of single- or few-filing entrants works around the edges.
A real drop, not a data artifact — but read it carefully
The fall from 7 filings in 2021 to 0 in 2024 is the last complete-year comparison this dataset supports. Do not read the 2025 count of 29 as a recovery: publication lag of roughly 18 months means 2025 and 2026 are both still being populated.
Fuel chemistry and bioinformatics overlap more than expected
C10L fuel-composition claims cover 45.8% of records, but G16B bioinformatics claims already reach 33.3% — a sign that synthetic biology and machine-learning platform claims are being filed alongside, not instead of, conventional fuel chemistry.
Corporate group filings cluster tightly
The strongest co-assignee pairing in this landscape links two entities under one corporate group across 5 shared records, suggesting coordinated filing across affiliated entities rather than open collaboration between competitors.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to marine biofuels patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claims, and where the field is still open
The assignee ranking returns 8 companies total — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, the full list the data endpoint returns for this search. Reading it alongside the IPC composition points to where new entrants still have room to file.
A clear leader in feedstock and fuel-composition claims
The leading assignee's 26 records dwarf the rest of the ranking, concentrated in the tall-oil-pitch and hydrotreatment route to marine fuel grade product exemplified by the representative record in this set.
Affiliated entities filing as a pair
Chevron Singapore Pte Ltd and Chevron Belgium NV form the strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset at 5 shared records, consistent with a single corporate group routing filings through more than one jurisdictional entity.
No ranked assignee shows fresh-year filings yet
Every assignee in the ranking, including the leader, shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, with several posting a -100% year-on-year change. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reads as incomplete data rather than a genuine pause across the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| X Development LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Haldor Topsoe | 0 | -100% |
| Neste Oyj | 0 | — |
| CHEVRON SINGAPORE PTE LTD | 0 | — |
| CHEVRON BELGIUM NV | 0 | — |
| UOP LLC (Honeywell UOP) | 0 | -100% |
| TotalEnergies OneTech | 0 | — |
| TOTALENERGIES ONE TECH | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or identifying a filing gap.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the leader's core claims
With 26 records concentrated around feedstock conversion and fuel composition, any new hydrotreatment or distillation-based route should be checked against the leading assignee's claim scope before development spend increases.
Explore the claims in EurekaWatch the G16B and G06N overlap for the next filing wave
Bioinformatics and AI-based computing claims already touch a third of this corpus alongside fuel chemistry; tracking new filings in that overlap will show whether it becomes the next contested zone.
Track this technology in EurekaRevisit the trend once 2025-26 data settles
Because publication lag leaves the most recent two years incomplete, re-run this trend analysis in twelve months before drawing conclusions about renewed or declining filing activity.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about marine biofuel patents
In this 48-record landscape, one assignee leads the ranking with 26 records, well ahead of a fifth-place figure of just 5 among the 8 companies the ranking covers. That gap indicates the core feedstock-conversion and fuel-composition claims are concentrated with a small group rather than spread evenly. It does not mean the field is closed to new entrants, since the ranking only reflects assignees who have already filed within this specific search scope.
Filings fell -100% from 7 in 2021 to 0 in 2024, which is the most recent year this dataset can treat as complete. The apparent activity in 2025 and 2026 should not be read as either a rebound or continued decline, because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months and those years are still being populated. A fair read of momentum needs at least another data cycle.
C10L, the fuels and firelighters subclass, covers 45.8% of the 48 records in scope and anchors the corpus in fuel composition and blending claims. G16B, bioinformatics, reaches 33.3%, reflecting synthetic biology and genetic platform filings that sit alongside the chemistry. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares overlap rather than partition the dataset.
WO2022129681A1, filed by Neste, claims a method for producing renewable marine fuel from tall oil pitch feedstock, using hydrotreatment in a reactor followed by fractionation in a distillation unit, where the fraction boiling above 360 degrees Celsius is suitable as marine fuel on its own or blended with RMG or RMB. It is the second most-cited record in this landscape. Anyone working with tall-oil-pitch-derived marine fuel should review its claim scope closely before finalizing a similar process route.
Relative to the overall claim density in this corpus, gasification reactor integration, computational-chemistry-based fuel quality prediction, and AI-driven feedstock screening all show thinner filing activity than the core fuel-composition claims. These branches combine established chemistry with newer computational methods, which the data suggests is not yet heavily claimed. That makes them reasonable starting points for a more detailed freedom-to-operate search rather than final answers on their own.
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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.