Membrane Separations Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Concentration is modest at the top. the leader holds 950 records but the top 5 combined account for just 10.7% of all 31,985 records in scope — this field is not owned by a handful of firms.
- Filing has cooled from its 2019 peak of 850. 2021's 834 filings fell to 626 by 2024, a -25% move over that span, though 2025-26 counts are still filling in under the usual publication lag.
- Separation hardware dominates the classification mix. B01D covers 22.5% of records, more than double the next-largest class, while fermentation and microorganism classes sit under 6% each — a sign of where claim space is thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (834 records) with 2024 (626) — 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 31,985 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Membrane separations patents in this dataset span process streams, mass transfer and phase separation claims filed against a broad chemical and process engineering base — from refinery gas separation to water treatment to bioconversion. The search combines membrane-separation terminology with process-stream and control language, which pulls in both dedicated membrane-hardware claims and process patents that use a membrane step as one stage of a larger separation train. That breadth explains why the IPC composition below spreads across separation processes, catalysis, hydrocarbon refining and fermentation rather than sitting in a single class.
31,985 records fall inside the 2015 to 2026 window used here, with the most recent year understated because publication trails filing by roughly eighteen months. Family-level counts, not raw document counts, drive the assignee ranking, which keeps continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates from inflating any single company's position.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 31,985-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A post-2019 pullback, not a collapse
Filings ran from 696 in 2017 to a peak of 850 in 2019, then eased to 834 by 2021 and 626 by 2024 — a -25% move over that three-year span. Treat 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than as evidence the field is shrinking further; publication lag means those years will keep rising as later filings publish.
Hardware and refining lead, biology trails
B01D (separation processes) alone touches 22.5% of the 31,985 records, with C07C and B01J each above 9%. Water treatment (C02F), fermentation (C12P) and microorganism engineering (C12N) each sit at or below 5.6%, which is a useful signal of where membrane-separation claims are less crowded relative to the classical hydrocarbon and separation-hardware core.
Shares are the percentage of the 31,985 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Membrane Separations Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about membrane separations patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Process For Recovering Hydrogen And Carbon Dioxide
The process recovers hydrogen and carbon dioxide from a process stream containing carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane. The stream is optionally compressed, cooled to −10°C or below in a heat exchanger, then separated and purified in a carbon dioxide separation unit to yield a carbon dioxide-rich liquid stream and a carbon dioxide-lean non-condensable stream.Filed by L'Air Liquide (Société Anonyme pour l'Étude et l'Exploitation des Procédés Georges Claude), published 2012-05-17.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EP0887379A1 | Process and apparatus for preparing propylene homopolymers and copolymers | 2,305 |
| 2 | US5200051A | Wholly microfabricated biosensors and process for the manufacture and use thereof | 1,498 |
| 3 | US5063081A | Method of manufacturing a plurality of uniform microfabricated sensing devices having an immobilized ligand r… | 1,323 |
| 4 | US5531878A | Sensor devices | 1,200 |
| 5 | US5821111A | Bioconversion of waste biomass to useful products | 1,079 |
| 6 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 860 |
| 7 | US4370983A | Computer-control medical care system | 847 |
| 8 | US5708151A | Cationic imidazole azo dyes | 747 |
| 9 | US5554339A | Process for the manufacture of wholly microfabricated biosensors | 706 |
| 10 | US6175409B1 | Flow-injection analysis and variable-flow light-scattering methods and apparatus for characterizing polymers | 677 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus — read them as markers 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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Four read-outs from the filing, citation and classification data that matter more for a filing decision than the headline counts.
No single owner dominates
The leading assignee holds 950 records against a 31,985-record field, and even the top 5 combined reach only 10.7% of all records in scope. Tenth place sits at 312. This is a fragmented field with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants below the ranked leaders.
Post-peak cooling, not a cliff
Filings peaked at 850 in 2019, held near that level through 2021 at 834, then dropped to 626 by 2024 — a -25% move. Several of the largest historical filers show flat or declining latest-year counts, while at least one mid-tier filer shows a year-over-year increase, suggesting share is redistributing rather than the field contracting outright.
Separation hardware is the densest zone
B01D claims sit in nearly a quarter of all 31,985 records, well ahead of C07C at 11.4% and B01J at 9.4%. Fermentation (C12P, 5.2%) and microorganism engineering (C12N, 3.3%) are comparatively open, which matters for anyone drafting bio-based separation claims.
US filing leads by a wide margin
The United States receives 8,552 of the tracked filings, roughly 2.3 times the EPO's 3,661 and well ahead of WIPO PCT filings at 3,048. Canada, Australia and Singapore each show four-figure or sub-thousand counts, useful markers for where enforcement exposure concentrates.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to membrane separations patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The ranked leaders come from oil majors, refining-technology licensors and specialty chemical firms, but the concentration numbers show this is not a two-player field. Recent-year momentum data also shows some of the largest historical filers going quiet while smaller players tick upward.
A lead, not a lock
The top assignee's 950 records give it the largest single share of the 31,985-record field, but that share alone does not clear even a tenth of the total — there is room for a well-drafted filing to sit beside, not behind, the leader.
Long tail below the ranked leaders
The top 10 assignees combined hold 5,309 records, 16.6% of the 31,985 in scope. The remaining 90 ranked assignees and the unranked tail account for the rest, meaning most of this field's claim space was built by companies without a dominant blocking position.
Momentum is shifting between firms
Several of the historically largest filers show zero or declining latest-year activity, while a mid-tier filer posted a year-over-year increase off a small base. Co-assignee data also shows one legacy group's internal filing network (parent company plus named inventors) as the strongest linked pair in the dataset, a marker of a long-running internal filing program rather than new entrants.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Eastman Chemical Company | 6 | +100% |
| Dow Technology Investments LLC | 2 | -33% |
| UOP LLC | 1 | -75% |
| Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. | 0 | — |
| Shell Oil Company | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Company | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc. | 0 | — |
| Toray Industries, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a fragmented ownership structure with specific thin spots in bio-based and process-control claims — the next step is turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate position.
Map a freedom-to-operate position
Run the specific membrane chemistry, module geometry or process-control loop you plan to claim against the ranked leaders' portfolios before drafting, rather than against the field average.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaStress-test a white-space claim
Under-claimed branches like enzymatic membrane bioreactor integration still sit inside a dense parent field; verify novelty against the full B01D and C12P overlap before committing drafting resources.
Search prior art in EurekaTrack momentum, not just rank
A leader with zero latest-year filings and a smaller filer growing year over year point to different competitive risks than the raw ranking shows.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on membrane separations patents
The ranking leader holds 950 family-level records, the largest single position in the 31,985-record dataset. However, the top 5 assignees combined account for only 10.7% of all records in scope, and the top 10 reach 16.6%, so no single company or small group controls the field. Most of the 100 ranked assignees, and a long tail below them, hold far smaller, more specialized positions, which means competitive risk is spread across many filers rather than concentrated in one gatekeeper.
Filing peaked at 850 in 2019 and held near that level through 2021 at 834 filings, then declined to 626 by 2024, a -25% move over that three-year span. That is a real pullback from the peak, not a collapse. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so those years should not yet be read as continuing the decline.
B01D, the separation-processes classification covering filtration and related hardware, appears in 22.5% of the 31,985 records, making it by far the densest single class. C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) and B01J (catalysis and physical processes) follow at 11.4% and 9.4% respectively. Biology-adjacent classes such as C12P (fermentation) and C12N (microorganisms) sit at 5.2% and 3.3%, marking them as comparatively less crowded relative to the hydrocarbon and separation-hardware core.
The classification data points toward the bio-process side of the field: fermentation-linked membrane harvesting, enzymatic bioreactor integration and microorganism-tolerant fouling resistance all sit in classes well below the 22.5% density of the core separation-hardware class. That does not mean these areas are empty, since they still overlap with the broader C12P and B01D claim base, but the relative density gap is real and worth mapping against specific competitor portfolios before drafting.
The United States leads with 8,552 filings in this dataset, more than double the EPO's 3,661 and well ahead of WIPO PCT filings at 3,048. Canada (1,737), Australia (1,566) and Singapore (644) round out the tracked receiving offices at smaller volumes. This distribution is useful for prioritizing where enforcement risk and competitive filing activity concentrate, though it reflects receiving-office counts rather than family-level totals.
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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.