Membrane Bioreactor Patent Landscape 2026
Membrane Bioreactor Patent Landscape in 2026
The membrane bioreactor field encompasses 6,441 patent families and is led by Evoqua Water Technologies, whose hollow-fiber and membrane-cleaning portfolio anchors a moderately concentrated competitive tier. Annual filing volume peaked in 2021 and has since eased, signaling a maturing core technology with selective growth in adjacent fermentation and bioreactor apparatus branches.
Evoqua leads a moderately concentrated field with a clear technology-services tier below it
Evoqua Water Technologies holds the top position with 311 patent families, placing it well ahead of the next-ranked filers. The top five applicants — Evoqua, Zenon Tech Partnership, BL Technology, Veolia Water Solutions, and General Electric — together account for 21% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers, indicating a field that is concentrated at the apex but still supports a broad mid-tier.
A meaningful gap separates the top two (311 and 195 patent families respectively) from the cluster of filers in the 100–130 range. Below rank five, at least ten applicants sit within a narrow band of 112–149 patent families, suggesting competitive parity across the second tier and limited winner-take-all dynamics.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evoqua Water Technologies LLC | 311 | |
| 2 | Zenon Tech Partnership | 195 | |
| 3 | BL Technology Inc. | 187 | |
| 4 | VEOLIA WATER SOLUTIONS & TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORT SAS | 149 | |
| 5 | General Electric Company | 125 | |
| 6 | LanzaTech Inc. | 124 | |
| 7 | D C WATER & SEWER AUTHORITY | 122 | |
| 8 | Siemens Industry Inc. | 116 | |
| 9 | Hampton Roads Sanitation District | 114 | |
| 10 | Toray Industries Inc. | 113 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Kubota Corporation | 112 | |
| 12 | Jiangxi JDL Environmental Protection Co. Ltd. | 98 | |
| 13 | Nalco Company | 96 | |
| 14 | VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research) | 88 | |
| 15 | Tongji University | 82 | |
| 16 | Tsinghua University | 79 | |
| 17 | Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 75 | |
| 18 | Zenon Environmental Inc. | 75 | |
| 19 | Praxair Technology Inc. | 70 | |
| 20 | Siemens Water Technologies Corp. | 63 |
The leaders’ positions reflect decades of hollow-fiber membrane system development; their large portfolios create substantial freedom-to-operate barriers around core module designs, aeration cycling, and cleaning protocols, pushing newer entrants toward differentiated process configurations or adjacent application areas.
Filings from the most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and will be revised upward as records are published; the apparent decline in 2024–2026 counts should be interpreted accordingly. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing volume peaked in 2021; wastewater treatment dominates but adjacent bioprocess branches are under-explored
Two charts capture the field’s trajectory and technology composition: the annual trend reveals how activity has evolved from 2017 to present, while the IPC branch breakdown shows where inventive effort is concentrated and where it remains sparse.
Annual filing trend
Filings grew from 748 in 2017 to a peak of 878 in 2021, then stepped down to 805 in 2022, 772 in 2023, and 622 in 2024. The 2025 and 2026 counts of 281 and 30 respectively reflect publication lag and should not be read as real-time activity levels. The underlying trend is one of post-peak moderation in the core wastewater-treatment application space.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
C02F (water and wastewater treatment) and B01D (separation and filtration) together account for the majority of IPC-level filings, confirming that submerged membrane filtration for municipal and industrial wastewater remains the dominant use case. Branches such as C12M (bioreactors and enzyme apparatus), C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering), and C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) each represent low single-digit shares, pointing to under-explored intersections between membrane technology and bioprocess engineering.
↗ 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.
Modified membrane bioreactor(MBR) system and metho…
A MBR system for removing PFAS from a flow of wastewater and/or landfill leachate includes an MBR which receives the flow of wastewater and/or landfill leachate having PFAS therein. An impregnation subsystem receives a flow of mixed liquor from the MBR and a predetermined amount PAC to maintain a predetermined ratio of PAC to biomass in the MBR and blends… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vertical skein of hollow fiber membranes and metho… | 430 |
| 2 | Frameless array of hollow fiber membranes and meth… | 385 |
| 3 | Vertical cylindrical skein of hollow fiber membran… | 344 |
| 4 | System for maintaining a clean skein of hollow fib… | 258 |
| 5 | System for maintaining a clean skein of hollow fib… | 245 |
| 6 | Cyclic aeration system for submerged membrane modu… | 239 |
| 7 | Baffle for conversion of fine bubbles to coarse wh… | 217 |
| 8 | Potted header for hollow fiber membranes and metho… | 207 |
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 portfolio structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural observations — on lifecycle stage, competitive concentration, collaborative ecosystems, and geographic coverage — frame the key decisions facing R&D teams entering or expanding in this space.
Post-peak: core technology is mature, opportunity lies in adjacent applications
The field is classified as Decline, with annual filing volume easing back from its 2021 peak. The multi-year corpus of 6,441 patent families reflects a technology that has passed its primary growth phase in municipal wastewater treatment. R&D differentiation now depends on moving into adjacent branches — biogas upgrading, industrial fermentation, or resource recovery — where portfolio density is comparatively low.
Lifecycle: DeclineApex is occupied; mid-tier remains contestable
The top five filers hold 21% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, and the gap between rank one (311 patent families) and rank two (195 patent families) is substantial. However, a dense cluster of ten-plus applicants in the 100–150 family range means that the second tier is not yet locked up. Entrants with focused portfolios in niche configurations — anaerobic MBR, osmotic MBR, or moving-bed hybrid systems — can realistically compete at that tier without matching the leaders’ breadth.
Moderate concentrationUtility-utility co-filing is the dominant collaboration pattern
The most active co-filing pair is DC Water and Sewer Authority with Hampton Roads Sanitation District, which together filed 109 joint patent families — by far the largest collaboration in the dataset. Toray Industries and Chiyoda Corporation co-filed 17 families, and General Electric with BL Technology produced 12. The pattern suggests that large utility operators collaborate intensively on full-scale system validation, while technology suppliers partner selectively for equipment integration.
Utility-led co-filingChina dominates filings; US, EPO, and PCT routes cover commercial markets
China is the overwhelmingly dominant filing jurisdiction with 6,296 patent records, reflecting both domestic demand and the concentration of manufacturing activity. The United States (1,655 records), Europe via EPO (1,009 records), and WIPO PCT (777 records) represent the principal commercial enforcement routes. Secondary markets including Australia, Canada, India, and Japan each show meaningful coverage, pointing to internationally active portfolios among the top filers.
China-led, globally activeGo 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 |
|---|---|---|
| DC Water and Sewer Authority | Hampton Roads Sanitation District | 109 |
| Toray Industries Inc. | Chiyoda Corporation | 17 |
| General Electric Company | BL Technology Inc. | 12 |
| Toray Industries Inc. | Hitachi Ltd. | 10 |
| Evoqua Water Technologies LLC | Siemens Industry Inc. | 4 |
| Zenon Environmental Inc. | OTV OMNIUM DE TRAITEMENTS & DE VALORISATION SA | 4 |
| Siemens Water Technologies Corp. | Saudi Arabian Oil Company | 2 |
| Zenon Environmental Inc. | OTV SA | 2 |
| DC Water and Sewer Authority | Sudhir N. Murthy | 1 |
| DC Water and Sewer Authority | Bernhard Wett | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Evoqua and LanzaTech anchor opposite ends of the application spectrum
The leader ranking spans traditional wastewater-treatment incumbents and a newer bioprocess-focused filer, reflecting divergent technology routes within the broader membrane bioreactor space.
Evoqua Water Technologies
Evoqua leads the corpus with 311 patent families, concentrated in biological wastewater treatment (C02F 3), conventional water treatment (C02F 1), and membrane maintenance and cleaning (B01D 65). Its applicant momentum shows a recent trend of –50% versus the prior period, consistent with the field-wide post-peak moderation and the company’s integration activity following its 2023 acquisition by Xylem. The portfolio’s breadth in hollow-fiber module design and aeration cycling creates strong freedom-to-operate barriers in municipal MBR deployments.
families: 311LanzaTech
LanzaTech ranks sixth overall with 124 patent families but is distinctively positioned: its focus sits on gas-separation membranes (B01D 53), bioreactor apparatus (C12M 1), and fermentation synthesis (C12P 7), making it the only top-ten filer whose core emphasis is biogas and industrial fermentation rather than wastewater filtration. Its recent filing momentum is +41% versus the prior period, the strongest positive trend among the measured incumbents, signaling active portfolio expansion in industrial biotechnology applications of membrane technology.
families: 124| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Evoqua Water Technologies LLC | 15 | ▼ -50% |
| LanzaTech Inc. | 62 | ▲ +41% |
| DC Water and Sewer Authority | 23 | ▲ +130% |
| Toray Industries Inc. | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| Hampton Roads Sanitation District | 25 | ▲ new entrant |
| Kubota Corporation | 12 | ▼ -29% |
Bioprocess apparatus and fermentation synthesis are under-served relative to their technical relevance
While core wastewater-treatment branches are densely filed, several IPC classes that intersect naturally with membrane bioreactor technology carry low patent counts and single-digit share figures among the top applicants, representing observations of relative sparsity with plausible technical value.
C12M · Bioreactors & Enzyme Apparatus
With 459 patent records and a 2% share among the top branches, C12M covers bioreactor vessel design, immobilized-enzyme systems, and cell-culture apparatus — all directly relevant to membrane bioreactor configurations for pharmaceutical manufacturing, food processing, and specialty chemicals. The sparse coverage relative to the wastewater treatment branches suggests that membrane module designers have not fully translated their hollow-fiber and module engineering expertise into GMP-grade or high-value bioprocess formats. An entrant combining established membrane-cleaning IP with bioprocess-specific sterility and scale-up requirements could occupy this adjacency with a focused filing program.
Search this in Eureka →C12P · Fermentation & Enzymatic Synthesis
C12P records 282 patent records at a 1% share, covering continuous fermentation processes, enzymatic conversion, and biosynthesis routes where membrane separation is used to concentrate products or remove inhibitors in situ. LanzaTech’s concentration in this branch demonstrates commercial viability, but the overall count remains low given the scale of industrial biotechnology investment globally. The combination of anaerobic MBR operation with in-situ product recovery is a technically coherent and commercially relevant entry path, particularly for bio-based chemical producers seeking to reduce downstream separation costs.
Search this in Eureka →How top filers differ across wastewater treatment, filtration, and bioprocess routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | C02F 3 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 1 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 9 · Water & wastewater treatment | B01D 65 · Separation processes (filtration etc.) | B01D 61 · Separation processes (filtration etc.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zenon Environmental Inc. | Strong · 91 | Strong · 109 | Absent | Strong · 87 | Strong · 97 |
| Evoqua Water Technologies LLC | Strong · 145 | Strong · 116 | Absent | Moderate · 67 | Moderate · 49 |
| General Electric Company | Strong · 156 | Strong · 112 | Moderate · 34 | Absent | Emerging · 31 |
| Nalco Company | Strong · 75 | Strong · 84 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 69 |
| Siemens Water Technologies Corp. | Strong · 102 | Absent | Moderate · 23 | Strong · 55 | Moderate · 46 |
| Toray Industries Inc. | Absent | Strong · 83 | Absent | Moderate · 39 | Strong · 54 |
| DC Water and Sewer Authority | Strong · 114 | Strong · 60 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 6,441 patent families globally, representing the total scope of patent activity in membrane bioreactor technology captured in this analysis.
Evoqua Water Technologies holds the top position with 311 patent families, ahead of Zenon Tech Partnership (195) and BL Technology (187). Evoqua’s portfolio is concentrated in biological wastewater treatment and membrane maintenance.
The field is classified as Decline, with annual filing volume easing back from a peak of 878 families in 2021 to 622 in 2024. This reflects maturation of the core wastewater-treatment application rather than disappearance of innovation activity.
China is the dominant filing destination with 6,296 patent records, followed by the United States (1,655), Europe via EPO (1,009), and WIPO PCT (777). Australia, Canada, India, and Japan each show substantial secondary coverage.
The most active co-filing partnership is between DC Water and Sewer Authority and Hampton Roads Sanitation District with 109 jointly filed patent families. Toray Industries and Chiyoda Corporation follow with 17 co-filed families, and General Electric with BL Technology produced 12 joint filings.
Bioreactors and enzyme apparatus (C12M, 459 records), microorganisms and genetic engineering (C12N, 330 records), and fermentation and enzymatic synthesis (C12P, 282 records) each carry single-digit percentage shares among the top IPC branches, despite clear technical overlap with membrane bioreactor operation in pharmaceutical and industrial bioprocess applications.
Map your own membrane bioreactor landscape in minutes
Join 18,000+ innovators using PatSnap Eureka to map any technology landscape: search 2B+ patents and papers, surface key assignees, and generate a report like this in minutes.
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.