MBR Resource Recovery Patent Landscape 2026
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support SAS leads a moderately concentrated field spanning 155 patent families, with China the dominant filing jurisdiction. Annual volume peaked in 2021 and has since eased, though adjacent branches in nutrient recovery and bioenergy remain sparsely covered.
Veolia leads a field with a clear tier gap between the front-runner and the rest
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support SAS holds the top position with 33 patent records, more than three times the nearest challenger, Zenon Tech Partnership at 10 patent records. The top five filers account for 26% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers, indicating a moderate but meaningful concentration at the front.
Below Veolia, the ranking compresses quickly: Zenon Tech Partnership (10), Evoqua Water Tech Canada Ltd (8), Divert Inc (7), and a cluster of organizations — BL Technology Inc, Korea Institute of Science & Technology, General Electric, Tongji University, and Inha University Research & Business Foundation — each at 6 patent records. This tight mid-tier suggests no single challenger has consolidated a strong secondary position.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VEOLIA WATER SOLUTIONS & TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORT SAS | 33 | |
| 2 | Zenon Tech Partnership | 10 | |
| 3 | Evoqua Water Technologies Canada Ltd | 8 | |
| 4 | Divert Inc | 7 | |
| 5 | BL Technology Inc | 6 | |
| 6 | KOREA INST OF SCI & TECH | 6 | |
| 7 | General Electric Company | 6 | |
| 8 | Tongji University | 6 | |
| 9 | INHA UNIV RES & BUSINESS FOUNDATION | 6 | |
| 10 | Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 5 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Thermax Ltd | 5 | |
| 12 | KING ABDULLAH UNIV OF SCI & TECH | 5 | |
| 13 | Jiangsu Kaimi Membrane Technology | 4 | |
| 14 | Taopu Sewage Treatment Plant of Shanghai Chengtou | 4 | |
| 15 | NASA (United States Government) | 4 | |
| 16 | UNIV OF SCI & TECH BEIJING | 3 | |
| 17 | Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research | 3 | |
| 18 | Everbright Environmental Technology Research Institute (Nanjing) | 3 | |
| 19 | University of South Florida | 3 | |
| 20 | Beijing University of Technology | 3 |
Veolia’s lead implies a durable first-mover advantage in core membrane bioreactor process patents, while the fragmented mid-tier — spanning industrial licensees, national labs, and universities — reflects an open competitive space for specialized resource-recovery applications. Entrants can still differentiate without directly confronting Veolia’s core filing volume.
The most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag and likely under-represent actual filing activity; trend readings for 2024–2026 should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity peaked in 2021; treatment process patents dominate but adjacent branches are thinly covered
The annual filing trend and technology composition charts together show where investment has been concentrated and where structural gaps remain. The field is past its 2021 peak, and the technology mix is heavily anchored in water and wastewater treatment, with secondary branches receiving a fraction of that activity.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings climbed to a peak of 33 patent records in 2021, then pulled back to 14 in 2022 before stabilizing at 21 in both 2023 and 2024. The 2025 count of 9 and the single record in 2026 reflect normal publication lag and should not be read as continued decline. The overall recent-window growth rate stands at -11%, consistent with a field that has eased from its peak rather than collapsed.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
C02F (water and wastewater treatment) accounts for 261 patent records — the overwhelming majority of activity — followed distantly by B01D (separation processes) at 59. Downstream resource-recovery branches such as C05F (organic and waste-derived fertilisers, 19), C12M (bioreactors and enzyme apparatus, 16), C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis, 9), and C10L (fuels and firelighters, 8) are present but thin, signalling that the field’s resource-recovery dimension remains underexplored relative to its treatment core.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Water reuse system and method
Disclosed herein are processes, methods, and devices for use in water reclamation, including a system comprising an osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR), a microporous membrane bioreactor (MBR), a biological nitrogen removal system (BNR), and a source of high osmotic pressure solution (draw solution), and a reconcentration process to achieve high water… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Organic slurry treatment process | 138 |
| 2 | Organic slurry treatment process | 134 |
| 3 | Anaerobic electrochemical membrane bioreactor and … | 45 |
| 4 | Waste recovery, conversion, and utilization | 43 |
| 5 | Method for utilizing internally generated biogas f… | 42 |
| 6 | 外置式厌氧膜生物反应器及其废水净化工艺 | 40 |
| 7 | Water reuse system and method | 34 |
| 8 | Water reuse system and method | 26 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the structure means for R&D investment decisions
The patent landscape’s maturity profile, concentration structure, collaboration patterns, and geographic footprint each carry distinct implications for teams deciding where to allocate R&D effort in MBR resource recovery.
Declining phase: annual volume has eased from its 2021 peak
The lifecycle stage is classified as Decline, driven by a –11% recent-window growth rate and annual filings retreating from the 2021 high of 33 patent records. This suggests that foundational MBR treatment concepts are maturing and that incremental process patents face higher prior-art hurdles. R&D investment should target differentiated sub-applications — particularly resource recovery outputs — rather than core membrane separation methods.
Lifecycle · DeclineOne dominant filer; mid-tier is fragmented and open
The top five filers hold 26% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers, with Veolia alone accounting for a plurality. Below that, no single challenger holds a dominant secondary position: eight organizations share the 6–10 patent-record band. This fragmentation means that a focused filing campaign in an adjacent sub-technology could establish a credible second-tier position without displacing Veolia’s core.
Concentration · ModerateTongji University and Shanghai Chengtou are the most active co-filers
The most active collaboration pairs Tongji University with the Taopu Sewage Treatment Plant of Shanghai Chengtou (4 joint filings), reflecting a practical utility-academia partnership in municipal wastewater recovery. NASA and the University of South Florida co-filed 3 records, suggesting aerospace life-support as an edge application. A third pairing — two Inha University entities — produced 1 joint record. Collaboration density is low overall, indicating that most applicants are filing independently rather than through cross-sector consortia.
Collaboration · Low densityChina dominates filing volume; PCT and EPO routes confirm commercial intent beyond Asia
China accounts for 127 patent records, making it the primary jurisdiction by a wide margin. The United States follows at 32, with WIPO PCT filings (20) and European Patent Office coverage (18) indicating that leading applicants are pursuing international protection on commercially significant inventions. Canada (11) and South Korea (11) round out the major jurisdictions. Applicants seeking freedom to operate in markets outside China should audit their coverage gaps in Europe and the US.
Geography · China-ledGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Tongji University | Taopu Sewage Treatment Plant of Shanghai Chengtou | 4 |
| NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) | University of South Florida | 3 |
| Inha University Research & Business Foundation | Inha University Research & Business Foundation | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Veolia anchors the field; a fragmented challenger tier is led by Zenon and Evoqua
Two corporate leaders define the competitive frontier in MBR resource recovery patents: Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support SAS as the clear front-runner, and Zenon Tech Partnership as the closest challenger. Both concentrate heavily on biological treatment processes, but differ in their secondary technical emphasis.
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support SAS
Veolia holds 33 patent records, anchoring the field with a primary focus on biological wastewater treatment (C02F3) supported by additional coverage in physical-chemical treatment (C02F1) and membrane separation (B01D61). This breadth across treatment sub-classes suggests a platform strategy covering multiple MBR configurations. Applicant momentum data is not separately recorded for Veolia in the recent-period dataset, but its accumulated portfolio constitutes a substantial prior-art barrier for competitors targeting core membrane bioreactor processes.
patent records: 33Zenon Tech Partnership
Zenon Tech Partnership holds 10 patent records, the second-highest in the corpus, with primary coverage in sludge and digestate treatment (C02F11) and biological treatment (C02F3). This focus on upstream sludge management within MBR systems positions Zenon as a specialist in solids handling and resource extraction rather than a broad-based MBR platform player. The gap between Zenon’s 10 records and Veolia’s 33 underscores how much headroom exists in the challenger tier.
patent records: 10| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Tongji University | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
Nutrient recovery and bioenergy conversion are under-served relative to the treatment core
Several IPC branches adjacent to the dominant C02F treatment class are represented by only a handful of patent records each, indicating that their resource-recovery potential has not yet attracted sustained filing activity. These observations are grounded in filing sparsity; commercial viability depends on additional technical and market validation.
C05F · Organic & waste-derived fertilisers
With 19 patent records and a 5% share among the top-ranked IPC classes, C05F is the largest of the adjacent under-served branches. MBR sludge streams are a natural feedstock for organic fertiliser production, making this a technically plausible extension of existing MBR process patents. The sparse filing density means that a targeted IP campaign covering struvite precipitation, digestate composting, or biosolid stabilisation could establish a differentiated position without entering Veolia’s core filing space. Entry requires cross-disciplinary expertise in both membrane systems and agricultural chemistry.
Search this in Eureka →C12P · Fermentation & enzymatic synthesis
C12P accounts for only 9 patent records at a 2% share, despite fermentation being a direct downstream application of MBR-treated effluent and concentrated biomass. The combination of anaerobic MBR operation with fermentation for volatile fatty acid or biohydrogen production is technically coherent and supported by the cited art on biogas utilization (see top-cited: ‘Method for utilizing internally generated biogas’). The branch’s sparsity reflects that most applicants have not pursued formal IP protection at the fermentation-synthesis interface. An entrant with combined MBR and fermentation expertise faces limited blocking prior art in this branch.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across MBR sub-classes
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | C02F 3 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 1 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 9 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 11 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 101 · Water & wastewater treatment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support SAS | Strong · 31 | Moderate · 8 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| General Electric Company | Strong · 9 | Moderate · 4 | Moderate · 3 | Absent | Absent |
| Zenon Tech Partnership | Strong · 8 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 8 | Absent |
| Evoqua Water Technologies Canada Ltd | Strong · 8 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 6 | Emerging · 1 |
| Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) | Strong · 6 | Moderate · 3 | Absent | Strong · 4 | Absent |
| Inha University Research & Business Foundation | Strong · 7 | Moderate · 3 | Moderate · 2 | Absent | Absent |
| International Waste Management Systems | Absent | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 155 patent families in scope. The applicant ranking and technology composition data are derived from patent records, which can exceed the family total because a single family may be tagged to multiple jurisdictions or IPC classes.
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support SAS leads with 33 patent records, more than three times the nearest challenger, Zenon Tech Partnership, which holds 10 patent records.
The field is classified as Decline. Annual filings peaked at 33 patent records in 2021 and have eased since then, with a recent-window growth rate of -11%. The most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and should be interpreted cautiously.
China is the dominant jurisdiction with 127 patent records. The United States follows at 32, with WIPO PCT filings at 20 and European Patent Office coverage at 18, indicating international commercial intent among leading applicants.
C05F (organic and waste-derived fertilisers, 19 patent records), C12M (bioreactors and enzyme apparatus, 16), C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis, 9), C10L (fuels and firelighters, 8), and B01F (mixing and stirring, 7) are all sparsely covered relative to the dominant C02F treatment class (261 patent records).
Collaboration density is low. The most active pairing is Tongji University with the Taopu Sewage Treatment Plant of Shanghai Chengtou with 4 joint filings. NASA and the University of South Florida co-filed 3 records, and two Inha University entities produced 1 joint record. Most applicants file independently.
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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.
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