Oxyfuel & Calcium Looping Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Oxyfuel Combustion and Calcium Looping Capture Patents
36.0% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 476 of 1,323 records in scope — filing is concentrated at the top, but more than 60% of the field still sits with a long tail of other entrants. Annual filings rose to a peak of 95 in 2020, then eased; 2021 to 2024 moved from 50 to 46 records, an 8% decline over that three-year window. 2025 and 2026 figures are shown but understated, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
- 1IFP ENERGIES NOUVELLES177
- 2SAUDI ARABIAN OIL CO126
- 3GENERAL ELECTRIC TECH GMBH59
- 4TOTAL RAFFINAGE CHIM57
- 5TOTALENERGIES ONETECH57
See the full oxyfuel and calcium looping capture analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between oxyfuel combustion and calcium looping for carbon capture?
Oxyfuel combustion burns fuel in near-pure oxygen instead of air, producing a flue gas that is mostly CO2 and water vapour so the CO2 can be separated by condensing the water out, rather than by chemical absorption. Calcium looping instead circulates a calcium-oxide sorbent between a carbonator, where it captures CO2 from flue gas, and a calciner, where heat releases the CO2 as a concentrated stream and regenerates the sorbent. Both routes appear heavily in this patent set alongside chemical looping combustion, a related but distinct approach that uses a metal oxide oxygen carrier instead of a calcium sorbent. Filing activity spans all three, with the strongest technology overlap in combustion apparatus (F23C) and inorganic compound handling (C01B).
Who holds the most patents in oxyfuel and calcium looping capture?
The dataset’s leading assignee holds 177 of the 1,323 records in scope, notably ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 57 and the tenth-ranked holder at 34. The top 5 assignees combined account for 36.0% of all records, and the top 10 for 52.9%, meaning roughly half the field is filed outside the leading ten organisations. The named assignees in this corpus include national energy majors, state petrochemical groups, and a mix of national laboratories and universities. This is a ranked list of the 100 assignees the dataset covers, not a definitive statement of who holds the strongest claims — citation strength and claim scope matter as much as raw count.
Is patent filing in this space slowing down?
Filing peaked at 95 records in 2020 and moved from 50 in 2021 to 46 in 2024, an 8% decline over that three-year span — a modest pullback rather than a collapse. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower still, but that reflects publication lag: patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing, so the most recent one to two years in any trend chart are always undercounted. The fairer read is that filing has settled below its 2020 peak into a steadier pace, consistent with a technology moving from early exploration toward more targeted, incremental claims. Judging momentum on 2025-26 numbers alone would understate current activity.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Oxyfuel and Calcium Looping Capture covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.