Photobioreactor Sterilization Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- A single leader with 30 records sits well ahead of a ranked field of 16 companies, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants below fifth place at just 4.
- Filings peaked in 2021 at 6 and fell to 3 by 2024, a -50% swing over that span — the clearest complete-year signal this dataset offers.
- C12M bioreactor claims dominate at 91.0% of the 78 records in scope, while filtration (B01D) and water treatment (C02F) each sit at only 19.2%, leaving sterilization-adjacent process claims comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 78 published records at the intersection of photobioreactor hardware and sterilization-related process steps — steam cycles, thermal mapping, sterile filtration, condensate removal, biological indicators and sterile hold — filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026. The scope is defined by IPC classes covering bioreactors and enzyme apparatus (C12M) and microorganism handling (C12N), so it captures the engineering side of keeping a closed algal or microbial culture system sterile rather than the biology of the organisms themselves.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend line are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown. The most reliable recent signal is the 2021-to-2024 comparison, which shows filings falling by half over that three-year window.
Filing trend and technology composition
The two views below cover the same 78 records: one tracks filing activity by year, the other breaks the corpus down by IPC subclass so a record can appear in more than one bucket.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 6 in 2021 before declining to 3 by 2024, a -50% change over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures are not yet complete because of publication lag and should not be read against the peak.
IPC subclass composition
C12M (bioreactors and enzyme apparatus) covers 91.0% of the 78 records, confirming this is fundamentally a hardware-classified field. C12N (microorganisms), A01G (horticulture) and three subclasses tied at 19.2% each — B01D separation, C02F water treatment and F23J combustion residue handling — show where sterilization intersects adjacent process engineering.
Shares are the percentage of the 78 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Photobioreactor Sterilization with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about photobioreactor sterilization and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US9102923B2 — Photobioreactor (Aveston Griffford Ltd., 2015-08-11)
The patent describes a closed photobioreactor for cultivating phototrophic microorganisms that is partially or fully surrounded by a surrounding water body, with a density difference maintained between the internal culture liquid and that surrounding water so the reactor's position can be controlled. A companion apparatus claim covers means for determining that density difference.Abstract trimmed for length; see the full record for complete claim language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20030228684A1 | Photobioreactor | 63 |
| 2 | US20110124087A1 | photobioreactor | 37 |
| 3 | WO2009090549A2 | photobioreactor | 35 |
| 4 | US20170107478A1 | System and method for biomass growth and processing | 31 |
| 5 | WO2000012673A1 | photobioreactor | 18 |
| 6 | US20180371391A1 | Pure algae growth system and method | 12 |
| 7 | US10294447B2 | Bioreactor with condenser | 9 |
| 8 | US20150232802A1 | Mixotrophic, phototrophic, and heterotrophic combination methods and systems | 7 |
| 9 | GB2341611A | Photobioreactor | 7 |
| 10 | US9102923B2 | Photobioreactor | 6 |
Citation counts inside this corpus skew toward older filings simply because they have had more time to be cited; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC breakdown are read together.
One assignee, then a steep drop
The leading assignee holds 30 records against a fifth-place count of just 4 within the ranked field of 16 companies. That gap suggests the leader has built a defensive thicket around core sterilization-cycle claims rather than the field being genuinely open at the top.
Activity has cooled from its 2021 peak
Filings peaked at 6 in 2021 and had fallen to 3 by 2024, the last year that can be treated as complete. That does not mean interest has ended — 2025 and 2026 counts are still being filled in by publication lag — but it does mean the surge that produced the 2021 peak has not repeated.
Hardware claims dominate; process-adjacent claims lag
C12M bioreactor-apparatus claims appear in 91.0% of the 78 records, while filtration, water treatment and combustion-residue handling each sit at only 19.2%. Sterilization-adjacent process integration looks comparatively under-claimed relative to the reactor hardware itself.
Influence sits with early filings
The most-cited record in this corpus dates to the early 2000s and has drawn 63 citations, well ahead of the next-most-cited records. High citation counts here reflect age and foundational status more than current commercial weight.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to photobioreactor sterilization, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked field spans 16 companies, from one clear leader down to entrants with a single record each. Co-filing activity is limited and concentrated among a small set of individual co-inventors rather than corporate joint ventures.
Aveston Griffford Ltd. leads the ranking
The leading assignee's record count is nearly eight times the fifth-place total, indicating a sustained, multi-year filing programme rather than a single burst of activity around sterile-hold or thermal-mapping claims.
A thin middle tier
Fifth place in the ranking holds only 4 records, and tenth place drops to 2. The middle of this field is thin, meaning most competitive activity beyond the leader is scattered across small filers rather than a defined second tier.
Co-filing is limited and personal
Only 5 co-assignee pairs appear in this corpus, the strongest linking two individual co-inventors on 5 shared records. This looks like an inventor partnership rather than an institutional joint-filing arrangement.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Brisa International LLC | 1 | — |
| Aveston Griffford Ltd. | 0 | — |
| No Self LLC | 0 | — |
| Addavita Ltd. | 0 | — |
| VERHEIN MIGUEL | 0 | — |
| MEISER ANDREAS | 0 | — |
| SIFTEX EQUIPMENT CO INC | 0 | — |
| Heliae Development LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a small set of practical next steps for anyone deciding where to file or design around existing claims.
Map the leader's claim boundaries
With 30 records against a fifth-place count of 4, the leading assignee's claim set is the first thing to chart in detail before committing to a sterilization-cycle design.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaWatch the 2021-2024 pullback
The drop from 6 filings in 2021 to 3 in 2024 is a real signal once publication lag is accounted for, and it is worth tracking against 2025-2026 as those years fill in.
Track filing trends in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Condensate removal, biological-indicator placement and combustion-residue coupling all sit below the density of core C12M hardware claims and merit a freedom-to-operate check before drafting.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee, Aveston Griffford Ltd., leads the ranked field with 30 records, well ahead of a fifth-place total of only 4 among the 16 companies covered by this ranking. This is a complete ranking of the companies returned by the data endpoint, not a curated top-50 or top-100 list, so the gap between first and fifth place is a real feature of the field rather than a truncation artefact. Anyone assessing freedom to operate in this space should start by reviewing that leader's portfolio in detail before looking at the rest of the field.
Filings peaked at 6 in 2021 and had fallen to 3 by 2024, a decline of 50% over that three-year window, which is the most reliable complete-year comparison in this dataset. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual drop in activity, so those years should not be read as confirming a slowdown. The honest read is that the 2021 surge has not repeated, not that interest in the field has ended.
Bioreactor and enzyme-apparatus claims under IPC class C12M appear in 91.0% of the 78 records in scope, making this fundamentally a hardware-classified field. Microorganism-related claims (C12N) appear in 30.8% and horticulture-related claims (A01G) in 26.9%, while separation processes, water treatment and combustion-residue handling each sit at 19.2%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlap patterns rather than a strict breakdown.
US9102923B2, assigned to Aveston Griffford Ltd. and dated 2015-08-11, covers a closed photobioreactor designed to be partially or fully surrounded by a body of water, with a controlled density difference between the internal culture liquid and that surrounding water used to position the reactor. It also claims an apparatus for determining that density difference. This is a structural and positioning patent rather than a sterilization-process patent, so it constrains reactor form factor and buoyancy control more than it constrains sterile-hold or thermal-mapping method claims.
The clearest openings sit in branches with filing density well below the 91.0% C12M core, including condensate removal integration, biological indicator placement inside closed-loop systems, and sterile-hold cycle control coupled to combustion-residue handling under F23J. These branches show up in the IPC composition at 19.2% or lower, meaning claim space there is comparatively unoccupied relative to reactor hardware itself. A first claim in these areas would likely need to tie a specific sterilization step to a named sub-system, such as a condensate trap or an in-line biological indicator, rather than claiming the reactor vessel broadly.
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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.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
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.