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MOF Purification Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026

MOF Purification Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/metal-organic-framework-purification-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Chemical & Process Engineering
Metal-Organic Framework Purification Patents: Where Filing Concentrates and Where It Doesn't
  • Gas-phase claims dominate. B01J and B01D subclasses account for 144 and 89 of the 161 families — water-treatment claims (C02F, 30) are a distant second.
  • Filing peaked in 2024, not now. Annual filings rose from 10 in 2017 to 25 in 2024, but the two most recent years read low mainly because publication lags filing by about 18 months.
  • Collaboration is rare. Only 10 co-assignee pairs exist across the entire dataset, and the strongest links sit among a small cluster of French research institutions.
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161
Published Records
29%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+213%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction

Filing growth compares 2021 (8 records) with 2024 (25) — 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 161 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.

Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Landscape Overview

How MOF purification claims are distributed

Metal-organic framework purification technology, as claimed in this dataset, splits unevenly between gas-phase adsorptive removal and water or wastewater treatment. The IPC composition shows the chemical/physical processing subclass B01J and the separation-processes subclass B01D carrying the bulk of the 161 families, while water treatment claims under C02F trail well behind. That imbalance matters for anyone assuming MOF water purification is the dominant commercial application — the patent record says gas purification and contaminant capture currently carry more claim weight.

Filing activity across the 2017-2026 window is not a steady climb. It starts at 10 families in 2017, dips to a midpoint low of 6 in 2022, then rises sharply to a peak of 25 in 2024 before the visible count falls off — largely an artefact of the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication rather than a genuine drop in activity.

Family counts by IPC subclass and filing year
  1. 1RGT UNIV OF CALIFORNIA15
  2. 2MASSACHUSETTS INST OF TECH10
  3. 3IMMATERIAL LTD8
  4. 4CAMBRIDGE ENTERPRISE LTD8
  5. 5ECOLE SUPERIEURE DE PHYSIQUE & DE CHIM IND DE LA VILLE DE PARIS6
  6. 6BATTELLE MEMORIAL INST6
  7. 7SHELL INTERNATIONALE RESEARCH MAATSCHAPPIJ BV5
  8. 8CENT NAT DE LA RECH SCI (C N R S)5
  9. 9ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE5
  10. 10INST DE TRANSFERENCIA TECHCA Y EMPRENDIMIENTO LTDA4
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Metal-Organic Framework Purification covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP

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Filing Data

Filing trends and technology composition

161 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 sit inside this search, spanning adsorptive gas purification, water treatment and contaminant-removal claims built on metal-organic frameworks.

Filing activity, 2017-2026

Annual filings rose from 10 in 2017 to a peak of 25 in 2024, with the midpoint year (2022) at just 6 — a pattern of flat-to-declining growth over most of the window before the recent peak. The final two years are undercounted because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months.

Filing activity, 2017-202606131925102017201820192020202120222023252024202542026Most recent year is partial — publication lag means later filings are not yet visible.

IPC subclass distribution

B01J (chemical/physical processes and catalysis) and B01D (separation processes) dominate at 144 and 89 records respectively, with C02F (water treatment) and C07F (organo-metallic compounds) forming a second tier — evidence that gas-phase adsorption claims currently outweigh water-treatment claims in this corpus.

IPC subclass distributionB01J · Chemical/physical processes & …14489.4%B01D · Separation processes (filtrati…8955.3%C07F · Organo-metallic & non-carbon c…3924.2%C02F · Water & wastewater treatment3018.6%C01B · Non-metallic elements & inorga…159.3%C07C · Acyclic & carbocyclic compounds138.1%C10L · Fuels & firelighters116.8%B82Y · Nanotechnology applications74.3%Other6942.9%

Shares are the percentage of the 161 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Metal-Organic Framework Purification covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.

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Notable Filings

Representative filing and cited prior art

Representative recent filing
US20250205676A12025-06-26

Open-channel supported metal-organic framework based gaseous contaminant removal

BLUE ORIGIN MANUFACTURING, LLC

A system for regenerative carbon dioxide removal in spacecraft cabin environments integrates MOF adsorbents onto an oxide-coated titanium support — sheet or wire mesh — in an open-channel architecture rather than a traditional packed bed, aiming for greater surface area, energy efficiency and airflow flexibility.Filed 2025-06-26 by Blue Origin Manufacturing, LLC — illustrates how device-architecture claims are extending MOF purification into enclosed-environment life-support applications.

US20250205676A1 — patent drawing 1US20250205676A1 — patent drawing 2
View full filing details
Most-cited records in this dataset
#Publication no.Patent titleCitations
1US20180171604A1Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device133
2US20200197901A1Metal organic framework (MOF) composite materials, methods, and uses thereof88
3US20170361300A1System and process for continuous and controlled production of metal-organic frameworks and metal-organic fra…42
4US20190217270A1Metal organic frameworks and methods of making and using same41
5US20160038924A1Activated carbon with a special finishing, production and use thereof41
6WO2018118377A1Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device40
7WO2018065555A1Metal-organic frameworks, methods for their manufacture and uses thereof38
8WO2010090683A1Metal organic frameworks (MOFS ) for gas purification32
9US20190234053A1Sorption-based Atmospheric Water Harvesting Device30
10US20160151762A1Formation of high surface area metal-organic frameworks29

Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older filings are naturally favoured, so treat this as a map of influence rather than current commercial weight.

Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.

Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Metal-Organic Framework Purification covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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Analysis

What the filing data signals

Reading citation counts, subclass distribution and co-filing patterns together points to a field with occupied core chemistry and open device-integration niches.

Citation concentration
133 cites
top-cited record

Older composite and device claims still anchor the field

The most-cited record, an atmospheric water-harvesting device filing, carries 133 citations — more than three times the next-ranked record. High citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings simply because they've had longer to accumulate references, so this signals influence on subsequent filings rather than current commercial relevance.

Citation data across most-cited records
Subclass imbalance
144 vs 30
B01J records vs C02F records

Gas purification claims outnumber water treatment nearly 5 to 1

With 144 records in B01J against 30 in C02F, most of the documented claim activity sits in chemical/physical adsorption processes rather than water and wastewater treatment specifically, even though MOF water purification is a commonly cited use case in the broader literature.

IPC subclass distribution
Collaboration scarcity
10 pairs
total co-assignee pairs

Most filers are going it alone

Across 161 families, only 10 co-assignee pairings appear at all, and the strongest ones cluster around a small group of French institutions filing at a count of 5 shared families each. That leaves most of the dataset as single-assignee filings, which is unusual density-adjusted for a materials field this technically complex.

Co-assignee pair analysis
Filing trajectory
25 in 2024
peak year filings

Growth is not steady — it's a late spike after a flat middle

Filings climbed from 10 in 2017 to a midpoint low of 6 in 2022, then jumped to a peak of 25 in 2024. That shape — flat, then a late surge — suggests a triggering event or application breakthrough around 2023-2024 rather than continuous organic growth.

Annual filing trend, 2017-2026
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Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?

Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to metal-organic framework purification, with the prior art for and against each one.

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Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Metal-Organic Framework Purification covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Competitive Landscape

Who is filing, and how concentrated the field is

Filing activity spans universities, national labs and a small number of corporate entrants, with collaboration between assignees limited to a handful of clustered pairs.

Research-institution cluster
5 shared families
strongest co-assignee pair

French institutions form the densest collaboration cluster

The three strongest co-assignee pairs in the dataset all involve the same small group of Paris-based research institutions, each sharing 5 families. That concentration suggests a coordinated academic research programme rather than broad industry-wide collaboration.

Co-assignee pair strength ranking
Momentum check
0 in latest year
across multiple historically active filers

Recent-year filings show a broad pause, not one company slowing

Several previously active filers — spanning university and corporate assignees — show zero filings in the most recent year. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reads more like an artefact of incomplete recent data than a genuine industry-wide stop.

Recent-year momentum by assignee
Receiving-office spread
61 US filings
largest single receiving office

US filing volume leads, but PCT and EPO routes are substantial

United States filings (61) lead the receiving-office breakdown, with WIPO/PCT (31) and EPO (24) filings indicating that a meaningful share of applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection rather than filing domestically only.

Receiving office distribution
🔍
Under-claimed sub-areas worth checking before filing
These branches show materially thinner patent density than the core adsorption and separation claims — worth a freedom-to-operate check before assuming the space is open.
Nanostructured MOF support geometriesFuel-adjacent MOF filtration formatsOpen-channel gas-flow architecturesJoint-filed material-and-device claimsMOF composite regeneration cycling
Rank all filers by momentum →
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
AssigneeRecent yearYoY
The Regents of the University of California0
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)0
NuMat Technologies, Inc.0-100%
Cambridge Enterprise Limited0
École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI Paris)0
Battelle Memorial Institute0
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)0
École Normale Supérieure de Paris (ENS Paris)0
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Metal-Organic Framework Purification covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps

Where to take this analysis next

The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single answer — each depends on what decision you're making.

Check freedom-to-operate against the top-cited records

The five most-cited filings, especially the two above 80 citations, are the most likely sources of blocking prior art for any new composite or device claim in this space.

Run a citation search

Scope a claim in an under-claimed branch

Nanostructured support formats and fuel-adjacent filtration show materially thinner coverage than the core adsorption subclasses, making them a more open filing target.

Explore white-space branches

Track the 2024 filing spike to its source

The jump from 6 families in 2022 to 25 in 2024 likely traces to a specific application breakthrough or regulatory trigger worth identifying before assuming the trend will continue.

Investigate the filing surge
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Metal-Organic Framework Purification covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Questions & Answers

Frequently asked questions

Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Metal-Organic Framework Purification covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP

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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.

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