Membrane Reactor Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has cooled since a 2019 peak of 52 records, with the 2022 midpoint already back down to 24 — this is a field consolidating claim space, not one still accelerating.
- C12P fermentation and enzymatic synthesis leads IPC composition at 102 records, ahead of inorganic-compound and gasification classes, meaning bioprocess integration is claimed at least as densely as thermochemical routes.
- The US receives the most filings (61), but Europe, WIPO, Canada, India and Australia together outnumber it, so freedom-to-operate work has to clear multiple regional offices, not just the USPTO.
Filing growth compares 2021 (49 records) with 2024 (1) — 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. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 252 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Membrane reactor system integration sits at the intersection of catalysis and separation engineering: a single unit does the reaction and the product separation together, rather than running them as sequential steps. The search behind this page pulls patent families that explicitly claim reaction-separation integration, process integration or membrane module integration alongside membrane or catalytic membrane reactor terminology, across 2015 through mid-2026.
The 252 families in this dataset span thermochemical routes such as gasification and syngas reforming as well as biological routes built on fermentation and enzymatic catalysis, which is why the IPC composition below spreads across eight distinct subclasses rather than clustering in one.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 252 families: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A 2019 peak, then a decline
Filings rose to 19 in 2017 and peaked at 52 in 2019. By the 2022 midpoint, annual volume had fallen to 24, and the most recent full year sits well below peak — publication lag means the last one or two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be, but the multi-year decline from 2019 predates that effect.
Bioprocess and gasification both carry weight
C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) leads at 102 records, with C01B (inorganic compounds), C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) and C10J (fuel gasification) each above 55. B01D separation processes and B01J catalysis sit in the 40s-to-50s range, and C10K fuel-gas purification and C12M bioreactor apparatus close out the composition — evidence that this landscape is genuinely split between chemical-process and bioprocess filers rather than dominated by one.
Shares are the percentage of the 252 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Membrane Reactor System Integration with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about membrane reactor system integration and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Oxygen transport membrane reforming with secondary reforming and auxiliary heat source
A method and system for producing a synthesis gas in an oxygen transport membrane based reforming system is disclosed that carries out a primary reforming process within a reforming reactor, and a secondary reforming process within an oxygen transport membrane reactor and in the presence of heat generated from an oxygen transport membrane reactor and an auxiliary source of heat. The auxiliary source of heat is disposed within the reactor housing proximate the reforming reactors and may include an auxiliary reactively driven oxygen transport membrane reactor or a ceramic burner.Filed by Praxair Technology, this record illustrates how thermal integration — not just the membrane material — becomes the subject of the claims once a reactor system is combined with secondary reforming and auxiliary heat.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170341942A1 | Methods and systems for large scale carbon dioxide utilization from lake KIVU via a co2 industrial utilizatio… | 206 |
| 2 | US20120315209A1 | Methods and systems for treating water streams | 66 |
| 3 | US20090263316A1 | High purity, high pressure hydrogen production with in-situ co2 and sulfur capture in a single stage reactor | 63 |
| 4 | US20140323598A1 | Method and system for producing a synthesis gas using an oxygen transport membrane based reforming system wit… | 40 |
| 5 | US20120165184A1 | Doped catalytic carbonaceous composite materials and uses thereof | 35 |
| 6 | US7837975B2 | High purity, high pressure hydrogen production with in-situ CO<sub>2 </sub>and sulfur capture in a single sta… | 35 |
| 7 | WO2010151231A1 | Doped catalytic carbonaceous composite materials and uses thereof | 34 |
| 8 | US10577248B2 | Methods and systems for large scale carbon dioxide utilization from Lake Kivu via a CO<sub>2 </sub>industrial… | 32 |
| 9 | WO2008039783A2 | Calcium looping process for high purity hydrogen production | 29 |
| 10 | WO2019157519A1 | Integrated process for filtering constituents from a gas stream | 26 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the trend, the IPC spread and the receiving-office split.
The field has cooled since 2019
Annual filings roughly halved between the 2019 peak and the 2022 midpoint, and the trend has not recovered since. Dense filing in earlier years means claim space around core reactor-integration concepts is already occupied; new entrants are more likely to find room at the process-control and module-integration margins than in the core reactor architecture claims.
Bioprocess integration is claimed as densely as thermochemical
C12P fermentation and enzymatic synthesis outnumbers every inorganic or gasification-related subclass. A filer assuming this space is mostly about hydrogen and syngas membranes will miss that enzymatic and microbial reaction-separation claims carry more volume.
No single office dominates
The US leads but accounts for well under half of filings once Europe, the PCT route, Canada, India and Australia are counted together. Clearance searches and design-around work need to cover multiple regional offices, not just the USPTO.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to membrane reactor system integration, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity has stalled
Co-assignee pairings are sparse in this dataset — only 8 pairs total, with the strongest tied to a single university's research groups — which points to a field of largely independent filers rather than dense joint-venture activity.
Ohio State University's research groups
The strongest co-assignee pairings in this corpus all link back to the same university, paired separately with different named inventors across its research groups — a pattern typical of an academic lab filing steadily rather than a corporate joint venture.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet across the board
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including national labs and oil-and-gas majors, shows zero filings in the latest year on record. Read this alongside the publication lag: some of this is reporting delay, but the multi-year slowdown from the 2019 peak is a separate, longer trend.
State oil companies sit alongside biotech filers
The assignee list mixes a national petroleum company, a US research institute, an applied-science research organisation and a synthetic-biology firm — confirming that thermochemical and bioprocess integration are pursued by structurally different types of organisation rather than one industry vertical.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LanzaTech | 0 | — |
| Ohio State University | 0 | — |
| Nanyang Technological University | 0 | — |
| RES America LLC | 0 | — |
| Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | -100% |
| Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| CeraMem Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and IPC data point to a field with dense early filing and a thinning recent pipeline. Two directions follow from that.
Map the white space before filing
The under-claimed sub-areas above are starting points, not conclusions. A proper freedom-to-operate check needs claim-by-claim comparison against the most-cited records in this corpus, particularly the oxygen transport membrane and syngas reforming families.
Run a white space search in EurekaTrack the quiet assignees
Zero recent-year filings across every top assignee could mean publication lag, strategic pause, or a shift to trade secret protection. Monitoring new filings as they publish will clarify which explanation fits each organisation.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about membrane reactor integration patents
In this dataset, it is a patent family that claims a membrane or catalytic membrane reactor combined explicitly with reaction-separation integration, broader process integration, or membrane module integration language. That excludes patents describing membrane materials alone or generic reactor vessels without an integration claim. The distinction matters because integration claims tend to cover the system architecture — how reaction and separation steps combine in one unit — rather than a specific membrane chemistry.
Filing volume rose to 52 records in 2019 from 19 in 2017, then fell to a 2022 midpoint of 24 and has stayed lower since. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the most recent one or two years always understate true filing activity, but the decline visible from 2019 through 2022 predates that effect and reflects a genuine slowdown in new filings during that window. It is consistent with a field where core reactor-integration architectures were claimed early and later filers have had less open ground to file into.
The assignee base is a mix of energy majors, national oil companies, applied research institutes and synthetic biology firms rather than a single dominant filer, and co-assignee pairings are sparse across the corpus. Every top assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year, which points to either a broad pause in this space or a reporting lag rather than one company pulling ahead. Anyone benchmarking competitors should check filing history over several years, not just the most recent one.
Bioprocess routes carry more filing volume in this dataset: C12P fermentation and enzymatic synthesis leads all IPC subclasses at 102 records, ahead of C01B inorganic compounds at 63 and C10J gasification at 59. That does not mean bioprocess membrane reactors are more commercially advanced — high filing density signals occupied claim space, not technology maturity. Thermochemical routes such as oxygen transport membrane reforming still hold some of the most-cited individual records in the corpus.
Based on the technology composition and citation patterns here, thinner claim density shows up around enzymatic membrane bioreactor control logic, auxiliary heat integration schemes for oxygen transport membranes, and modular scale-up skid designs, compared to the denser core reactor and separation-module claims. These are starting points for a freedom-to-operate search, not a guarantee of open ground — each needs claim-by-claim comparison against the most-cited records before committing a filing strategy.
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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.