Organic Rankine Cycle Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One assignee holds 11 of the 42 records in scope while the fifth-ranked and tenth-ranked entrants sit at just 4 and 2 — a steep drop-off after the leader rather than a broad, even field.
- Filing activity peaked in 2022 at 10 records then fell toward the data cut-off; 2025 and later years are still filling in as publications lag behind filing by roughly 18 months.
- Drone and aircraft subclasses already carry live claims B64D and B64U each cover 9.5% of the 42 records, showing organic Rankine cycle work has moved beyond stationary waste-heat plants into airborne platforms.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (0) — 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.
What this landscape covers
This review covers 42 published patent records matching organic Rankine cycle systems, waste heat power and working fluid selection, cross-referenced against evaporator pinch point, expander isentropic efficiency, fluid decomposition, regenerator design, part-load operation and loop leak tightness. The scope spans filings from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off, with 15 companies named in the assignee ranking the underlying dataset returns.
Records concentrate in steam and thermal power plant classifications, with secondary weight in gas-turbine, boiler and internal-combustion subclasses. A smaller but consistent share touches aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle equipment, which signals organic Rankine cycle claims are being adapted for mobile and airborne waste-heat recovery, not just fixed industrial plant.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 42-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 4 in 2017 to a peak of 10 in 2022, then declined; the evidence records a -100% swing from 2021 (1 record) to 2024 (0 records) over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are undercounted because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, so the apparent drop after 2022 should not be read as the field cooling off.
IPC subclass composition
F01K (steam & thermal power plants) leads at 40.5% of the 42 records, followed by F02C (gas-turbine plants) at 23.8% and F22B (steam generation & boilers) at 19.0%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares sum to more than 100% and should be read as coverage density, not as mutually exclusive segments.
Shares are the percentage of the 42 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Organic Rankine Cycle Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about organic rankine cycle systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this set
US8046999B2 — High-temperature dual-source organic Rankine cycle with gas separations
Describes a dual-source organic Rankine cycle (DORC) architecture: working fluid is pumped to high-side pressure, pre-heated in a low-temperature recuperator, boiled from a low-grade heat source, super-heated in a high-temperature recuperator using turbine exhaust enthalpy, further super-heated to turbine inlet temperature from a mid-grade heat source, then expanded through a turbine and cooled back through the recuperator chain.Filed by Doty Scientific, Inc., published 2011-11-01. Cited 103 times within this corpus.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130125554A1 | Systems and Methods For Exhaust Gas Extraction | 116 |
| 2 | US20100300093A1 | High-temperature dual-source organic Rankine cycle with gas separations | 109 |
| 3 | US8046999B2 | High-temperature dual-source organic Rankine cycle with gas separations | 103 |
| 4 | US20100280135A1 | Hydrocarbon and alcohol fuels from variable, renewable energy at very high efficiency | 90 |
| 5 | WO2008115933A1 | Hydrocarbon and alcohol fuels from variable, renewable energy at very high efficiency | 58 |
| 6 | WO2012018458A1 | System and method for exhaust gas extraction | 50 |
| 7 | US20080121755A1 | Rankine-Brayton engine powered solar thermal aircraft | 41 |
| 8 | CA2698334A1 | High-temperature dual-source organic rankine cycle with gas separations | 40 |
| 9 | US20130328322A1 | Non-to-minimally fractionalized biomass-fueled renewable energy | 39 |
| 10 | US20140007575A1 | Split radiator design for heat rejection optimization for a waste heat recovery system | 30 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate references; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the record set is broken down by assignee, year and technology class.
One filer, then a long tail
The leader holds 11 records against a fifth place of 4 and a tenth place of 2. That gap matters for freedom-to-operate work: a single assignee's claim set is worth checking first before assuming the field is fragmented.
Peak already passed, but read the tail carefully
Filing volume rose steadily to a 2022 peak, then declined through 2024. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025-2026 counts are not yet complete and should not be treated as evidence the field is shrinking.
Airborne waste-heat recovery is already claimed
Aircraft equipment (B64D) and unmanned aerial vehicles (B64U) each appear in 9.5% of the 42 records. That is a smaller share than steam or gas-turbine classes but confirms organic Rankine cycle claims already extend to mobile platforms, not just stationary plant.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to organic rankine cycle systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The assignee ranking returns 15 companies; a handful of co-filing pairs suggest where internal engineering teams collaborate repeatedly on the same claims.
A single filer sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds roughly three times the record count of the fifth-place filer, making its granted claims the first checkpoint for any freedom-to-operate review in this space.
A cluster of mid-size filers
Below the leader, filing counts drop quickly and settle into a narrow band. These filers are worth watching for licensing or acquisition moves rather than for blocking coverage on their own.
Repeated internal co-filing
The strongest pairs recur across multiple records, pointing to stable internal engineering teams rather than one-off joint ventures. That pattern is useful when trying to identify the actual inventors behind a corporate assignee.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Doty Scientific, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek NV (VITO) | 0 | — |
| CONLON WILLIAM M | 0 | — |
| NELSON CHRISTOPHER R | 0 | — |
| ERNST TIMOTHY C | 0 | — |
| ODEA DENNIS M | 0 | — |
| MITTRICKER FRLIN F | 0 | — |
| HUNTINGTON RICHARD A | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated leader, a declining-but-incomplete recent trend, and technology branches that are thinly claimed relative to the steam and gas-turbine core.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding roughly a quarter of the ranked record count, its granted claims are the first thing to clear before committing engineering resources to a similar architecture.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the 2025-2026 filings as they publish
The apparent post-2022 decline is partly an artefact of publication lag; revisit the trend once the next 18 months of filings clear examination and publish.
Track filing trends in EurekaDraft claims around the under-claimed branches
Regenerator design for part-load operation and loop leak tightness in mobile installations show low filing density relative to the steam and gas-turbine core — a starting point for new claim language.
Draft claims with EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Within this 42-record dataset, one assignee leads with 11 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 4 and the tenth-ranked filer at 2. That gap means a single company's portfolio is the natural starting point for any competitive or freedom-to-operate review in this space. The ranking covers 15 companies total, so it is a focused list rather than an exhaustive market census.
Filing activity rose to a peak of 10 records in 2022, then declined toward the 2026 data cut-off, with the evidence showing a -100% swing between 2021 (1 record) and 2024 (0 records). However, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete. Treat 2024 as the most recent year with a reliable count, and be cautious about calling the field slower based on the last one to two years alone.
Steam and thermal power plant classifications (F01K) dominate at 40.5% of the 42 records, followed by gas-turbine plants (F02C) at 23.8% and steam generation and boilers (F22B) at 19.0%. Internal-combustion engine integration and gas liquefaction each appear in smaller but consistent shares. Because records often carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to a whole.
Yes. Aircraft equipment (B64D) and unmanned aerial vehicles (B64U) each appear in 9.5% of the 42 records, a smaller share than the steam and gas-turbine core but enough to show the technology has moved into mobile and airborne waste-heat recovery applications. This is worth watching for teams working on drone or aircraft thermal management, since claim space there is less crowded than in stationary plant.
US8046999B2, filed by Doty Scientific, describes a dual-source organic Rankine cycle that uses both a low-temperature and a high-temperature recuperator alongside separate low-grade and mid-grade heat sources feeding a single turbine expander. It is the most-cited record in this dataset behind two related applications from the same family, with 103 citations recorded within this corpus. Its recuperator-staging approach is a useful reference point for anyone designing a multi-source waste-heat cycle, since closely related claims recur across the same assignee's filings.
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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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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.