MOF Purification Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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%.
Go deeper on Metal-Organic Framework Purification with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about metal-organic framework purification and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and cited prior art
Open-channel supported metal-organic framework based gaseous contaminant removal
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.


| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20180171604A1 | Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device | 133 |
| 2 | US20200197901A1 | Metal organic framework (MOF) composite materials, methods, and uses thereof | 88 |
| 3 | US20170361300A1 | System and process for continuous and controlled production of metal-organic frameworks and metal-organic fra… | 42 |
| 4 | US20190217270A1 | Metal organic frameworks and methods of making and using same | 41 |
| 5 | US20160038924A1 | Activated carbon with a special finishing, production and use thereof | 41 |
| 6 | WO2018118377A1 | Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device | 40 |
| 7 | WO2018065555A1 | Metal-organic frameworks, methods for their manufacture and uses thereof | 38 |
| 8 | WO2010090683A1 | Metal organic frameworks (MOFS ) for gas purification | 32 |
| 9 | US20190234053A1 | Sorption-based Atmospheric Water Harvesting Device | 30 |
| 10 | US20160151762A1 | Formation of high surface area metal-organic frameworks | 29 |
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.
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Browse MCP servers →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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | — |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | 0 | — |
| NuMat Technologies, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Cambridge Enterprise Limited | 0 | — |
| École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI Paris) | 0 | — |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | 0 | — |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | 0 | — |
| École Normale Supérieure de Paris (ENS Paris) | 0 | — |
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 searchScope 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 branchesTrack 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 surgeFrequently asked questions
These patents cover MOF-based materials and devices designed to remove contaminants from gas or water streams, including adsorptive gas purification, atmospheric water harvesting, and wastewater treatment. The claim scope in this dataset spans both the underlying MOF composite chemistry and the device architectures that host it, such as packed beds, open-channel supports, and composite filter media. Most activity concentrates in gas-phase separation (B01D) and catalytic/chemical processing (B01J) rather than pure water treatment.
Filing activity in this dataset is spread across universities, national research institutes and a handful of corporate filers, with several French research institutions showing the strongest co-assignee collaboration links. No single entity dominates filing volume outright, and recent-year momentum data shows most of the historically active filers with zero filings in the latest year — consistent with either a genuine slowdown or the normal 18-month publication lag masking recent activity. Readers should treat any single-year ranking as provisional until later filings publish.
Filing density is high in the core adsorption and separation subclasses (B01J, B01D), which indicates that claim space around basic MOF composite chemistry and standard device formats is already occupied — not that the technology itself has reached mature, low-risk commercial deployment. The presence of a 2025-filed spacecraft air-scrubbing patent alongside decade-old water-harvesting patents suggests the field is still actively finding new application niches even as the core chemistry claims are crowded. Thin coverage in adjacent branches like nanotechnology-format adsorbents (B82Y) points to continued early-stage exploration rather than settled maturity.
The thinnest-claimed branches in this dataset are nanotechnology-integrated MOF formats and fuel-adjacent purification applications, each represented by single-digit-to-low-teens record counts compared to over a hundred in the core separation subclasses. A defensible new claim in these areas would likely need to combine a specific support geometry or nanostructure with a named contaminant class or operating regime, rather than claiming the base MOF chemistry, which is already densely covered. Co-assignee collaboration is also limited to about ten pairs across the whole dataset, suggesting room for joint-filed claims that bridge material science and device engineering.
US20250205676A1, filed by Blue Origin Manufacturing in mid-2025, claims an open-channel architecture that integrates MOF adsorbents onto an oxide-coated titanium support — specifically a titanium dioxide nanotube surface layer on a thin sheet or wire mesh — for regenerative CO2 removal in spacecraft cabin air. The claim scope is tied to that specific support geometry and open-channel gas-flow design, not to the MOF chemistry itself or to packed-bed configurations. Anyone building a similar air-scrubbing system with MOF-on-metal-support architecture should check their support geometry and flow path against this filing before finalising a design.
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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.