Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell for Agricultural Irrigation Patent Landscape
Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell for Agricultural Irrigation Patent Landscape in 2026
This is a very small, highly concentrated niche: 9 patent families in scope, with Bloom Energy Corp holding the largest single-filer position and the top five filers collectively accounting for all activity among the hundred largest filers. Annual filing volume peaked in 2020 and has since eased, placing the field in a decline stage with the United States as the dominant jurisdiction.
Bloom Energy Corp leads a heavily consolidated field
Bloom Energy Corp ranks first with 5 patent records, followed by Hydrogenics Corp with 4 and. The Boeing Co with 3, making three organizations responsible for the bulk of documented activity in this niche.
The top five filers — Bloom Energy Corp, Hydrogenics Corp, The Boeing Co, Water Resources Int, and. The Ohio State University — collectively represent the entirety of the top-hundred filers’ combined total, indicating extreme concentration with no meaningful long-tail of secondary players.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bloom Energy Corporation | 5 | |
| 2 | Hydrogenics Corporation | 4 | |
| 3 | The Boeing Company | 3 | |
| 4 | Water Resources International | 1 | |
| 5 | The Ohio State University | 1 |
Such concentration suggests the space is shaped by a handful of actors pursuing specialized system-integration concepts rather than a broad competitive race; new entrants would encounter a compact but well-defined prior-art landscape anchored by Bloom Energy Corp’s fuel-cell filings.
Filings from approximately the last 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and may be under-represented in the current count. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Episodic filing activity with a fuel-cell core and scattered adjacent classes
The annual trend reveals two discrete bursts of activity rather than sustained growth, while the technology composition shows a dominant fuel-cell core surrounded by a sparse set of adjacent classes spanning water supply, drying, horticulture, and marine propulsion.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity is highly episodic: a burst of 5 records appeared in 2020, followed by silence, then 4 records in 2023, with nothing recorded in surrounding years. The field’s lifecycle is classified as decline, with annual volume easing back from the 2020 peak. Years 2024–2026 should be treated as potentially under-counted due to publication lag.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) dominates with 13 patent records, confirming that electrochemical stack technology is the primary focus. B63H (marine propulsion and steering) appears with 3 records — an unexpected adjacency traceable to Bloom Energy Corp’s portfolio. E03B (water supply and distribution) and F26B (drying) each hold 2 records, while A01G (horticulture and forestry), directly relevant to agricultural irrigation, accounts for only 1 record, underscoring how thinly the agricultural application layer is covered.
↗ 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.
Sustainable new water production system
A system, having three independent subsystems, each yielding useful products for society. The CBM produced water, starting ingredient for subsystem one, yields LNG, and useable water. Subsystem two produces syngas from agricultural products irrigated by subsystem one water. This syngas is used in subsystem three to produce more potable water at a second… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Method of making electrochemical detectors based o… | 18 |
| 2 | Integrated power generation, carbon dioxide separa… | 12 |
| 3 | Water Harvesting System | 7 |
| 4 | Sustainable new water production system | 7 |
| 5 | Water harvesting system | 3 |
| 6 | Fuel-less steam-driven electric generating system | 3 |
| 7 | Integrated power generation, carbon dioxide separa… | 2 |
| 8 | Integrated power generation, carbon dioxide separa… | 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.
What the structure means for R&D investment decisions
A niche this small and episodic rewards targeted positioning rather than broad coverage; the key strategic questions are whether the decline reflects genuine commercial disinterest or simply a pause before the next application-specific push.
Decline stage — episodic bursts, not sustained growth
The lifecycle is classified as Decline, with annual filings easing back from a 2020 peak. The pattern of two isolated bursts (2020 and 2023) rather than a continuous ramp suggests that investment has been opportunistic and project-driven. An R&D team entering now faces a low prior-art density but also limited evidence of sustained commercial pull.
Lifecycle: DeclineThree organizations own the field
Bloom Energy Corp, Hydrogenics Corp, and The Boeing Co together hold the preponderance of patent records. The top five filers account for 100% of the top-hundred filers’ combined total, leaving virtually no mid-tier competitive layer. This structure makes freedom-to-operate analysis straightforward but also signals that any new entrant must differentiate clearly from these three incumbents.
High concentrationBoeing-linked co-filings are the only documented partnerships
The evidence shows two co-applicant pairings: Gao Lijun with The Boeing Co (1 joint record) and Liu Shengyi with The Boeing Co (1 joint record). No broader consortium or cross-institutional collaboration network is visible. The Boeing Co thus serves as the sole documented collaboration hub, likely reflecting its water-harvesting and drying system work.
Thin collaborationUnited States-centric with limited international coverage
Eight patent records are filed at the United States Patent Office, 4 at the EPO, and 3 via WIPO PCT. The disproportion toward the US indicates that international protection has been selective rather than systematic, leaving European and Asian jurisdictions largely open for parallel filings on novel system configurations.
US-dominantGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| LIU SHENGYI | The Boeing Company | 1 |
| GAO LIJUN | The Boeing Company | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Bloom Energy Corp leads on fuel-cell stack depth; Hydrogenics Corp is a new entrant
Two organizations define the competitive frontier: Bloom Energy Corp with established fuel-cell and marine-propulsion filings, and Hydrogenics Corp as a newly active filer whose recent-period records match Bloom Energy Corp’s total volume.
Bloom Energy Corp
Bloom Energy Corp holds 5 patent records, focused on H01M 8 (fuel cells) and B63H 21 (marine propulsion and steering). The marine-propulsion adjacency suggests the company is filing integrated power-system concepts that extend beyond the irrigation context. No recent momentum signal is recorded for this filer, consistent with the 2020 filing peak having passed.
patent records: 5Hydrogenics Corp
Hydrogenics Corp holds 4 patent records and is flagged as a new entrant with a rising trajectory, having placed all of its activity in the recent period. Its technology emphasis spans H01M 8 (fuel cells) and H01M 16 (hybrid electrochemical cells), indicating a focus on cell-level innovations rather than system integration. This new-entrant status warrants monitoring as a potential disruptor in what is otherwise a stagnant filing environment.
patent records: 4| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrogenics Corporation | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant fuel-cell core
Several IPC classes appear in the corpus with very low counts, indicating areas where the intersection of molten carbonate fuel cell technology with agricultural or water-management applications is technically plausible but sparsely documented.
A01G · Horticulture & Forestry
With only 1 patent record classified under A01G, the direct agricultural application layer — the stated purpose of this niche — is the least-covered branch in the corpus. Fuel-cell-powered drip irrigation controllers, greenhouse climate management, or precision soil-moisture sensing driven by MCFC waste heat represent plausible entry points. Campbell Applied Physics is the sole filer touching A01G, suggesting minimal incumbent defense in this sub-space.
Search this in Eureka →B01D · Separation Processes (Filtration)
B01D holds 1 patent record, pointing to an under-served intersection between MCFC off-gas management (CO2 capture and separation) and water-treatment filtration for irrigation-quality water. The technical path is coherent — MCFC exhaust streams can be coupled with membrane separation to produce CO2-enriched water for crop stimulation or to remove contaminants — but no filer has staked out this route systematically.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | H01M 8 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | B63H 21 · Marine propulsion & steering | E03B 3 · Water supply & distribution | F26B 23 · Drying | A01G 29 · Horticulture & forestry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloom Energy Corporation | Strong · 5 | Strong · 3 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| The Boeing Company | Strong · 3 | Absent | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Absent |
| Hydrogenics Corporation | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus currently contains 9 patent families in scope. This is a very small niche, and the limited volume means each filing carries disproportionate prior-art weight for freedom-to-operate purposes.
Bloom Energy Corp leads with 5 patent records, followed by Hydrogenics Corp with 4 and The Boeing Co with 3. Together these three organizations account for the majority of documented activity.
The field is classified as Decline. Annual filings peaked in 2020 and have eased since then. The two discrete filing bursts — in 2020 and 2023 — suggest opportunistic rather than sustained investment.
The United States is by far the dominant jurisdiction with 8 patent records filed there. Europe (EPO) has 4 records and WIPO PCT has 3, indicating that international protection has been selective. European and Asian jurisdictions are comparatively open.
The only documented co-applicant relationships involve The Boeing Co: Gao Lijun and Liu Shengyi each have 1 joint record filed with The Boeing Co. No broader multi-party consortium is evident in the corpus.
A01G (horticulture and forestry) and B01D (separation processes) each have only 1 patent record, making them the sparsest branches with plausible technical relevance to fuel-cell-powered irrigation systems. E03B (water supply and distribution) and F26B (drying) each have 2 records and are also lightly covered relative to the H01M core.
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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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