Nutrient Recovery Patent Landscape 2026
Nutrient Recovery Patent Landscape in 2026
EasyMining Sweden AB holds a commanding lead in a field of 1,230 patent families, with wastewater treatment process chemistry dominating the technology mix. Activity has reached a plateau near its 2021 peak, signalling a mature field where differentiation increasingly depends on adjacent branches such as phosphate fertiliser chemistry and bioreactor engineering.
EasyMining leads a moderately concentrated field with a clear tier gap
EasyMining Sweden AB ranks first with 159 patent families, more than three times the output of second-ranked Anaergia (52 patent families), establishing a pronounced tier-one position that no other applicant currently matches.
The top five filers collectively account for 26% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, indicating moderate concentration: a single dominant player sits above a competitive mid-tier populated by universities, municipal technology firms, and diversified industrial groups.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EasyMining Sweden AB | 159 | |
| 2 | Anaergia | 52 | |
| 3 | University of South Florida | 47 | |
| 4 | Toshiba Corporation | 32 | |
| 5 | Taiheiyo Cement Corporation | 31 | |
| 6 | Tongji University | 30 | |
| 7 | Cambi Technology AS | 28 | |
| 8 | Beijing University of Technology | 27 | |
| 9 | Onoda Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. | 26 | |
| 10 | U.S. Government (NASA) | 24 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Swing Corporation | 23 | |
| 12 | SUZHOU UNIV OF SCI & TECH | 23 | |
| 13 | DVO Inc. | 23 | |
| 14 | NUTRIENT RECOVERY & UPCYCLING LLC | 22 | |
| 15 | Ebara Engineering Service Co. Ltd. | 21 | |
| 16 | Himark Biogas Inc. | 21 | |
| 17 | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 20 | |
| 18 | University of Washington | 19 | |
| 19 | Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. | 18 | |
| 20 | VEOLIA WATER SOLUTIONS & TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORT SAS | 17 |
EasyMining’s lead, built on inorganic phosphorus chemistry and phosphate fertiliser processes, creates a defensible moat in the core recovery pathway, while mid-tier players such as Anaergia, the University of South Florida, Toshiba, and Taiheiyo Cement Corp each exploit distinct sub-routes, leaving room for targeted entry.
Patent publications typically lag filing dates by 18–24 months, so the most recent data points undercount true activity and 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 has plateaued near its 2021 peak; wastewater treatment dominates the technology mix
Two charts together reveal where the field stands in its cycle and which IPC branches absorb the most inventive effort. Reading them in combination helps identify both the core competitive arena and the adjacent spaces attracting less attention.
Annual filing trend
Annual family filings rose from 112 in 2017 to a peak of 178 in 2021, then settled into a range of 125–152 through 2023–2024. The 2025 and 2026 bars are materially under-counted due to publication lag and should not be read as a decline. The overall multi-year growth rate is effectively flat (+1%), consistent with a field at or near maturity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
C02F (water and wastewater treatment) is overwhelmingly dominant, reflecting the central role of effluent processing in nutrient capture. C01B (inorganic compounds), B01D (separation), C05B (phosphate fertilisers), and C05F (organic and waste-derived fertilisers) form a secondary cluster. Branches such as C12M (bioreactors), C05C (nitrogen fertilisers), and C25B (electrolytic production) are present but comparatively sparse, indicating under-exploited adjacencies.
↗ 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.
Phosphorus recovery method and phosphorus recovery…
A phosphorus recovery method and a phosphorus recovery system which can make equipment size small, and can be added easily also to an existing wastewater treatment facility, and can recover phosphorus by low cost, are provided. A phosphorus compound adsorption material includes a nitrogen containing compound which has an amino group at an end of molecular… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Methods and systems for large scale carbon dioxide… | 200 |
| 2 | Organic slurry treatment process | 138 |
| 3 | Organic slurry treatment process | 134 |
| 4 | Wastewater treatment system | 112 |
| 5 | Combined nutrient recovery and biogas scrubbing sy… | 100 |
| 6 | Preparation Method for Combined Modified Straw Act… | 82 |
| 7 | Wet biomass treatment | 82 |
| 8 | Magnetic Metal Oxide Biochar Composite Particles, … | 80 |
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 competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural lenses — maturity, concentration, collaboration, and geography — translate the patent data into actionable signals for teams deciding where to build, partner, or avoid.
Field is at a plateau, not in decline
The lifecycle stage is Maturity: annual filings have plateaued near their 2021 peak of 178 families, and the multi-year growth rate has settled to approximately 1%. In a plateau, incremental process patents face crowding in the core C02F space, while adjacent branches remain more open. R&D teams should prioritise differentiated sub-routes over head-on competition in established wastewater treatment chemistry.
Lifecycle: MaturitySingle dominant player; competitive mid-tier intact
EasyMining Sweden AB’s 159 patent families place it well ahead of all rivals. However, the top five filers represent only 26% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, meaning the mid-tier — spanning universities, specialist firms, and large industrials — remains genuinely competitive. New entrants with focused portfolios in a distinct sub-route can still achieve visibility without displacing the leader directly.
Moderate concentrationIndustry–cement sector pairing is the strongest co-filing signal
Taiheiyo Cement Corp and Onoda Chemical Industry Co. are the most active co-filers, sharing 25 joint patent families — by far the largest collaboration pair in the dataset. Ebara Engineering Service appears in five additional co-filing relationships with research institutes, agricultural technology agencies, and industrial partners, suggesting it operates as a hub connector in the Japanese ecosystem. University of South Florida and NASA co-filed on 5 families, pointing to a public-sector research thread.
Collaborative clustersChina leads filings; US and Europe are substantive secondary markets
China is the lead jurisdiction with 540 patent records, followed by the United States (439), Europe via EPO (256), Japan (192), and WIPO PCT (192). India (106) and Canada (92) represent meaningful emerging markets. The breadth of PCT and EPO filings confirms that leading applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdictional protection, making freedom-to-operate assessments non-trivial for any new entrant planning global commercialisation.
China-led, global scopeGo 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Taiheiyo Cement Corporation | Onoda Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. | 25 |
| University of South Florida | NASA | 5 |
| Ebara Corporation | Regional Resource Recycling Technology Center | 2 |
| Ebara Corporation | National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) | 2 |
| Ebara Corporation | Nishihara Environment Co. Ltd. | 2 |
| Ebara Corporation | Unitika Ltd. | 2 |
| Ebara Corporation | Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. | 2 |
| Taiheiyo Cement Corporation | Utsunomiya University | 2 |
| Onoda Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. | Utsunomiya University | 2 |
| Taiheiyo Cement Corporation | Yasumasa Nishimura | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
EasyMining anchors phosphorus chemistry; Anaergia leads in integrated wastewater-to-fertiliser systems
The two largest portfolio holders occupy distinct technical lanes. EasyMining’s concentration in inorganic phosphorus recovery stands apart from the broader wastewater-process focus shared by most other top applicants.
EasyMining Sweden AB
EasyMining Sweden AB holds 159 patent families, its focus concentrated in inorganic phosphorus compounds (C01B 25), phosphate fertilisers (C05B 11), and wastewater treatment (C02F 11). Recent momentum is classified as a new entrant pattern in the current window — indicating that its filing activity in the most recent period is a relatively new or sharply rising contribution — with 22 recent families, suggesting its dominant position is still being actively built rather than maintained passively.
families: 159Anaergia
Anaergia holds 52 patent families with a technology emphasis on wastewater treatment processes (C02F 11, C02F 1) and organic/waste-derived fertilisers (C05F 7), reflecting its integrated anaerobic digestion and resource recovery business model. The evidence does not include a momentum trend figure for Anaergia in the applicant momentum dataset, so trajectory is evidence pending for this specific window.
families: 52| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| EasyMining Sweden AB | 22 | ▲ new entrant |
| University of South Florida | 6 | ▼ -65% |
| Tongji University | 5 | ▼ -50% |
| Cambi Technology AS | 2 | ▼ -92% |
Bioreactor engineering and electrolytic recovery are under-served relative to core wastewater treatment
The whitespace analysis flags IPC classes with meaningful but comparatively low representation in the corpus. These observations reflect relative sparsity against the dominant C02F block; technical and commercial plausibility varies by branch.
C12M · Bioreactors & enzyme apparatus
C12M accounts for 85 patent records against more than 2,000 in C02F, a roughly 24-to-1 imbalance. Bioreactor-based nutrient capture — using microbial consortia to selectively assimilate phosphorus and nitrogen — is technically distinct from chemical precipitation routes and could offer higher specificity and lower reagent costs. Teams with bioprocess engineering capability could enter this branch without direct overlap with EasyMining’s inorganic chemistry portfolio. Entry paths include engineered enrichment cultures and membrane bioreactor configurations.
Search this in Eureka →C25B · Electrolytic production of compounds
C25B holds 28 patent records in the corpus, making it one of the sparsest branches with plausible direct relevance to nutrient recovery: electrochemical stripping of ammonia and electrochemically driven phosphate crystallisation are active areas in academic literature but remain thinly patented here. The low count may reflect early-stage commercial readiness, which also means the space is less crowded for early movers willing to accept development risk. Entry paths include modular electrochemical cell designs compatible with existing wastewater infrastructure.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ across technology routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | C02F 1 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 11 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 3 · Water & wastewater treatment | C02F 101 · Water & wastewater treatment | C01B 25 · Non-metallic elements & inorganic compounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EasyMining Sweden AB | Strong · 80 | Strong · 92 | Absent | Emerging · 25 | Strong · 142 |
| Anaergia | Strong · 28 | Strong · 30 | Strong · 21 | Absent | Absent |
| Cambi Technology AS | Strong · 26 | Strong · 28 | Absent | Strong · 22 | Absent |
| University of South Florida | Strong · 29 | Absent | Strong · 24 | Strong · 16 | Absent |
| Tongji University | Absent | Strong · 16 | Absent | Strong · 14 | Strong · 12 |
| Suzhou University of Science and Technology | Absent | Absent | Strong · 21 | Strong · 12 | Moderate · 8 |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 1,230 patent families globally. This is the base count on which all trend, concentration, and whitespace analyses are built.
EasyMining Sweden AB leads with 159 patent families, more than three times the output of second-ranked Anaergia (52 patent families). EasyMining’s portfolio is concentrated in inorganic phosphorus compounds and phosphate fertiliser processes.
The field has reached a maturity plateau. Annual filings peaked at 178 families in 2021 and have since settled in the 125–152 range. The multi-year growth rate is approximately 1%. The most recent bars (2025–2026) are under-counted due to publication lag and do not indicate a real decline.
China is the lead jurisdiction, followed by the United States, Europe (EPO), Japan, and WIPO PCT. India and Canada are notable secondary markets. The breadth of PCT and EPO filings indicates that major applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdictional protection strategies.
C12M (bioreactors and enzyme apparatus) and C25B (electrolytic production of compounds) are the sparsest branches with direct technical relevance to nutrient recovery. Both sit well below the dominant C02F (wastewater treatment) block, which accounts for more than 2,000 patent records.
The most active co-filing pair is Taiheiyo Cement Corp and Onoda Chemical Industry Co., which share 25 joint patent families. Ebara Engineering Service is a notable hub, co-filing with five distinct partners including regional resource recycling centres and agricultural research agencies. University of South Florida and NASA co-filed on 5 families.
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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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