Modular/Cascade Heat Pump Patent Snapshot 2026
The modular and cascade heat pump patent corpus is small and heavily concentrated in China, with activity peaking in 2019 and annual volume easing since. A tight cluster of Chinese university and industry filers shares the leading positions, leaving the global competitive map largely uncontested outside East Asia.
A handful of Chinese filers dominate a compact, post-peak corpus
The top-ranked applicant, Shanghai Lizheng Satellite Application Technology Co., Ltd., shares the lead position with Xuzhou Jizi Energy Management Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang University, each holding 2 patent records. Together, the top five filers account for 80% of the combined total of the ranked applicants visible in this query — an exceptionally high concentration for any technology field.
The tier gap is essentially flat at the top: three applicants are tied at 2 patent records each, with a single record separating them from the remaining four filers. This structure signals a field where no single actor has built a decisive portfolio advantage.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shanghai Lizheng Satellite Application Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 2 | Xuzhou Jizi Energy Management Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 3 | Zhejiang University | 2 | |
| 4 | U1EMT | 1 | |
| 5 | Jiangsu Simpson New Energy Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 6 | China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corp., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 7 | Qingzhou Huanli Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd. | 1 |
The co-presence of a leading research university (Zhejiang University) and commercial firms at the same filing volume level suggests that academic and industry activity are roughly co-equal, and that proprietary commercialization pathways have not yet diverged sharply from academic research directions.
The most recent filing periods are subject to publication lag and may undercount actual activity; assessments of the current competitive position should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity peaked in 2019 and has eased; F25B refrigeration dominates the technology mix
The annual filing trend and technology branch breakdown together show a field that established its foundational patents early in the 2019–2022 window and has since seen reduced annual volume, with the core refrigeration and heat-pump branch accounting for the majority of filings.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity peaked at 3 records in 2019, dropped to 1 in 2020, rebounded to 2 in 2022, then fell to 1 in 2023. Years 2024–2026 show zero records, though the most recent 18–24 months should be treated as incomplete due to publication lag rather than confirmed inactivity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F25B (Refrigeration & heat pumps) is the visible branch, followed by F24D (Domestic heating systems). F28D (Heat-exchange apparatus) appears at the margin, indicating that heat-exchange hardware design is a smaller but adjacent area of technical activity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
空气源热泵复叠系统
本实用新型提供了一种空气源热泵复叠系统，包括空气源热泵机组、螺杆机组、循环水泵、输出水泵、水箱和补水系统；所述水箱的进水口与所述补水系统连接，所述水箱的出水口与所述循环水泵的进水口连接，所述循环水泵的出水口与所述螺杆机组的蒸发器的进水端连接，所述蒸发器的出水端与所述空气源热泵机组的进水端连接，所述空气热源泵的出水端与所述水箱的回水口连接。本实用新型提供的空气源热泵复叠系统，对大面积供暖节省电能明显。 (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dual refrigerating air source heat pump system | 4 |
| 2 | 一种适用于多种供热系统的模块化自控系统 | 1 |
| 3 | 空气源热泵复叠系统 | 1 |
| 4 | 空气源热泵与混合工质自复叠制冷的耦合系统 | 1 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Shanghai Lizheng Satellite Application Technology Co., Ltd.
Holds 2 patent records, concentrated in F25B refrigeration and heat pump subclasses (F25B 13, F25B 41, F25B 40). The company co-files with Zhejiang University, suggesting a research-to-commercialization pipeline. No momentum data is available for this applicant, so trajectory beyond the corpus snapshot cannot be confirmed.
patent records: 2Xuzhou Jizi Energy Management Co., Ltd.
Also holds 2 patent records, with technology focus entirely in F24D domestic heating systems subclasses (F24D 12, F24D 19). Classified as a new entrant in the most recent period, indicating a first-time presence in the corpus rather than sustained long-term filing. This domestic-heating orientation is distinct from the F25B-focused leaders.
patent records: 2Frequently asked questions
The corpus covered in this analysis contains 7 patent families. This is a small corpus, and competitive conclusions should be drawn with that scale in mind.
China accounts for all 7 patent records in the corpus. South Korea has 1 record, making it the only other jurisdiction represented. No filings from the US, EU, or Japan are present.
Shanghai Lizheng Satellite Application Technology Co., Ltd., Xuzhou Jizi Energy Management Co., Ltd., and Zhejiang University each hold 2 patent records, placing them jointly at the top of the ranking.
Yes. Zhejiang University and Shanghai Lizheng Satellite Application Technology Co., Ltd. have co-filed 2 patent records, making them the only identified co-applicant pair in the corpus.
The field is classified as Decline. Annual filings peaked in 2019 and have eased since, with a recent-window growth rate of -25%. The 2024–2026 zero-count years should be treated cautiously due to publication lag.
F25B (Refrigeration & heat pumps) is the visible branch, followed by F24D (Domestic heating systems). F28D (Heat-exchange apparatus) appears in only 1 record, making it the sparsest branch and an observation point for adjacent technical work.
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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.
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