Methane & Green Propellant Rocket Patents: Who Leads 2026
- Concentrated at the top. the top 5 of 9 ranked assignees account for 75.0% of all 16 records in scope, with the leader alone holding 4.
- Filing is climbing, not cooling. filings moved from 1 in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a +100% rise over that span, with a peak of 5 records in 2022.
- Jet propulsion dominates the claim map. F02K covers 81.3% of the 16 records, while additive manufacturing (B33Y) and powder metallurgy (B22F) sit far behind at 25.0% and 12.5%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 16 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent filings at the intersection of liquid methane and green monopropellant engine chemistry and the engineering problems that decide whether such an engine survives repeated use: coking on hot surfaces, cryogenic ignition reliability, propellant densification for storage, catalyst bed durability, boil-off management, and restart capability. It is a narrow, applied slice of rocket propulsion patenting rather than a survey of propulsion broadly.
With 16 records in scope across a search window running to mid-2026, the field is small enough that a handful of filers set the shape of the claim space, and any single new filing shifts the picture measurably. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so counts for 2025 and 2026 will fill in as later disclosures publish.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 16 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings sat at zero as recently as 2017, rose to a peak of 5 records in 2022, and moved from 1 filing in 2021 to 2 in 2024 — a +100% rise over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because of publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
F02K (jet and reaction propulsion) appears in 81.3% of the 16 records and B64G (cosmonautics and spacecraft) in 56.3%, confirming this is primarily an engine-and-vehicle-systems corpus. Additive manufacturing (B33Y, 25.0%) and powder metallurgy (B22F, 12.5%) show up as build-method claims layered on top of the core propulsion classes, not as a separate cluster.
Shares are the percentage of the 16 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Methane and Green Propellant Rocket Engines with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about methane and green propellant rocket engines and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this landscape
Systems and methods for design, manufacture, and test of space thruster propulsion systems
The disclosed methods, systems, and kits provide the ability to deliver entire clean sheet designs from concept to first hot fire in under six weeks with instant specific impulses above 330 seconds in some of our engines. In examples, thrusters can be delivered that are at less than half of the mass budget allowable for them and they can be delivered in weeks.Filed by Agile Space Industries, Inc.; published 2024-12-05.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2023034291A2 | Systems and methods for design, manufacture, and test of space thruster propulsion systems | 13 |
| 2 | US20240401547A1 | Systems and methods for design, manufacture, and test of space thruster propulsion systems | 9 |
| 3 | US11480136B1 | Monopropellant continuous detonation engines | 8 |
| 4 | US20240125287A1 | Monopropellant continuous detonation engines | 3 |
| 5 | US20240018951A1 | Chemical-Microwave-Electrothermal Thruster | 3 |
| 6 | US20170138309A1 | Microfluidic Homogeneous Catalyzation Systems and Methods, and Apparatuses Incorporating Same | 2 |
| 7 | CN117465698A | 一种新型绿色单组元推进系统在轨使用方法 | 1 |
| 8 | WO2023034291A3 | Systems and methods for design, manufacture, and test of space thruster propulsion systems | 1 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older records; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (8 of 8 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the same 16-record dataset, each aimed at a different question a strategy team actually asks.
Filing is concentrated, but the field is thin
Nine assignees cover all 16 records, and the top five already account for 75.0% of that total, with the leader holding 4 records on its own. That is a small enough ranked set that a single new entrant filing two or three applications would visibly change the concentration picture.
Growth is real but off a small base
The filing count rose from 1 in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a +100% increase, after peaking at 5 records in the single year 2022. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the apparent dip after 2022 is at least partly an artifact of records not yet published, not a genuine retreat from the space.
Core propulsion claims crowd one subclass
F02K appears in 81.3% of the 16 records, with B64G spacecraft-systems claims layered on top in 56.3% of them. Build-method classes — additive manufacturing and powder metallurgy — appear in a quarter or fewer of records, suggesting manufacturing-route claims are still an addition to core propulsion claims rather than a competing filing strategy.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to methane and green propellant rocket engines, with the prior art for and against each one.
Leading assignees and where the momentum sits
The ranked set covers 9 companies and research bodies across all 16 records in scope, from a single clear leader down to several single-filing entrants.
One filer sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds 4 of the 16 records in scope, ahead of a fifth-place filer with a single record. That gap between first and fifth place is the clearest sign of how thin the ranked field still is.
A long tail of single- and low-filing entrants
Below the leader, most of the ranked assignees hold only one or two records each, including university and research-institute filers. That pattern is typical of an applied niche still being explored by individual labs and startups rather than consolidated among a few majors.
Latest-year activity has narrowed to one filer
Of the assignees tracked for recent-year momentum, only one shows a filing in the latest year, while the leader and other established filers show none in that same window. Given the 18-month publication lag, this says more about what has published so far than about who is actively filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| PARI KRISHNAN | 1 | — |
| AGILE SPACE IND INC | 0 | — |
| MOMENTUS SPACE LLC | 0 | — |
| University of Vermont | 0 | — |
| SMITH RICHARD D | 0 | — |
| Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) | 0 | — |
| Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 0 | — |
| VELLORE INST OF TECH CHENNAI | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a small, active field with room for a well-drafted filing to matter. These are the next steps worth taking before committing a filing strategy.
Map the white space claim by claim
Catalyst bed durability, restart ignition sequencing and boil-off mitigation all show low filing density relative to core jet-propulsion claims — worth checking claim-by-claim before assuming the space is open.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the leader's continuation activity
With one assignee holding 4 of 16 records, tracking its continuation and divisional filings is the fastest way to see where its claim scope is still expanding.
Track assignee activity in EurekaRe-run the search after 2025-2026 records settle
Publication lag means the last one to two years of this trend will keep filling in; a re-run once those records post will sharpen the growth read.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
This landscape counts 16 published records in scope, covering the intersection of methane or green monopropellant chemistry with engineering issues like coking, cryogenic ignition, propellant densification and catalyst bed durability. That is a narrow, applied search rather than a survey of rocket propulsion broadly, so the true count of adjacent filings outside this exact scope is larger. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent years in this count are understated and will rise as later filings publish.
Nine assignees make up the full ranked set for this search, together covering all 16 records in scope. The top-ranked filer holds 4 records, well ahead of the fifth-place filer's single record, and the top five combined account for 75.0% of all records. Most of the remaining assignees, including several university and research-institute filers, hold only one or two records each, which is typical of a field still being explored by individual teams rather than dominated by established majors.
Filing activity has grown over the medium term: the count moved from 1 filing in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a +100% increase, after a peak of 5 records in the single year 2022. The apparent drop after 2022 should not be read as a slowdown, because records from 2025 and 2026 are still publishing and will raise those years' counts. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as a complete data point for trend comparisons.
US20240401547A1, filed by Agile Space Industries, describes systems, methods and kits for taking a clean-sheet thruster design from concept to first hot fire in under six weeks, targeting specific impulses above 330 seconds and thrusters delivered under half their allowable mass budget. Its claims center on rapid design-manufacture-test workflows for space thrusters rather than a specific propellant chemistry, so it is most relevant to teams building fast-iteration hardware programs rather than to catalyst or propellant chemistry work specifically. Anyone designing a similarly compressed thruster development pipeline should review its claim scope directly rather than relying on the abstract alone.
The technology composition data shows core jet-propulsion claims (F02K, 81.3% of records) and spacecraft-systems claims (B64G, 56.3%) dominating, while build-method and mechanism-specific areas like additive-manufactured injector coking resistance, catalyst bed durability, restart ignition sequencing and boil-off mitigation appear far less often. That gap suggests these mechanism-level problems are still claimed as add-ons within broader propulsion patents rather than as focused inventions in their own right. A first claim drafted specifically around one of these mechanisms, rather than around the engine system as a whole, is more likely to find open ground.
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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.