Polyacrylamide Flocculant Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 33.9% of all 6,569 records sit with just five assignees, so most of the field's claim space is already staked before a newcomer opens a search.
- D21H pulp and paper compositions cover 44.8% of records, nearly three times the share of C02F water treatment itself — flocculant chemistry is patented mostly through paper-making claims.
- Filings fell 31% from 2021 to 2024 (192 to 132), a real slowdown in complete-year data, not an artifact of publication lag.
Filing growth compares 2021 (192 records) with 2024 (132) — 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. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 6,569 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Polyacrylamide flocculants sit at the intersection of paper manufacturing, water treatment and polymer chemistry, and the patent record reflects that split rather than treating it as a single water-treatment niche. Claims range from inverse emulsion synthesis routes and charge density control to end-use formulations for sludge dewatering and paperboard strength. The dataset covers 6,569 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, indexed against terms covering cationic and anionic polyacrylamide chemistry alongside manufacturing and performance variables like molecular weight distribution and shear degradation.
Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity. The most reliable read on direction comes from complete years — here, 2021 through 2024 — rather than from the most recent partial year.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views matter here: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the technology splits across IPC subclasses. Both are drawn directly from the 6,569 records in scope.
Filing trend: a peak year, then a real pullback
Filings peaked in 2017 at 432 records. Using only complete years, 2021 filings (192) fell to 132 by 2024, a 31% decline over that three-year span. That is a genuine cooling in a field that was heavily claimed earlier in the period, not a data artifact.
Technology composition: paper first, water treatment second
D21H (pulp and paper compositions) touches 44.8% of records, well ahead of C02F (water and wastewater treatment) at 17.9%. C11D detergents, C08L and C08F polymer compositions each sit near 10%, with B01D separation processes and C09K misc. materials trailing behind. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add to more than 100% of the 6,569 records.
Shares are the percentage of the 6,569 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Polyacrylamide Flocculant Manufacturing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about polyacrylamide flocculant manufacturing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US5906750A — Method for dewatering of sludge
A chemical method for dewatering biological sludge digested by a thermophilic process, built around a polyquaternary amine (DADMAC or epi-DMA type) used alongside polyacrylamide. Five configurations are claimed, differing in whether the polyquaternary amine and an anionic polyacrylamide are added together or in separate steps, and in the sequence and combination of the dewatering agents.Filed by ClearValue Technologies, this 1999 filing sits squarely in the sludge-dewatering combination-chemistry space still active in later filings.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4753710A | Production of paper and paperboard | 469 |
| 2 | US4913775A | Production of paper and paper board | 325 |
| 3 | US6379497B1 | Bulk enhanced paperboard and shaped products made therefrom | 320 |
| 4 | EP0235893A1 | Production of paper and paperboard | 258 |
| 5 | US4482459A | Continuous process for the reclamation of waste drilling fluids | 257 |
| 6 | US6740373B1 | Coated paperboards and paperboard containers having improved tactile and bulk insulation properties | 230 |
| 7 | US5221435A | Papermaking process | 207 |
| 8 | US4321261A | Ionic ophthalmic solutions | 196 |
| 9 | US20140223669A1 | Compositions and methods for providing a benefit | 191 |
| 10 | US5405501A | Multi-layered tissue paper web comprising chemical softening compositions and binder materials and process fo… | 188 |
Citation counts favour older filings within a searched corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on later work, not 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 a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once volume, concentration and class distribution are read together.
Filing activity is concentrated at the top
The top five assignees combined account for 33.9% of all records in scope, and the top ten reach 45.0%. That leaves a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants working around a small set of dominant claim holders.
Paper-making claims dominate the chemistry
Nearly half of all records touch D21H pulp and paper compositions, well ahead of C02F water treatment at 17.9%. A search or freedom-to-operate review limited to water-treatment classes alone would miss most of the relevant prior art.
Filing volume has cooled since its 2017 peak
After peaking at 432 filings in 2017, complete-year volume dropped from 192 in 2021 to 132 in 2024. Recent-year assignee data shows the leading filers pulling back sharply too, consistent with a maturing claim landscape rather than a data gap.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to polyacrylamide flocculant manufacturing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it opens up
A handful of chemicals and paper-process companies hold the largest blocks of filings, with co-assignee pairs pointing to internal group restructuring rather than open collaboration. Recent-year momentum for the leaders is flat to sharply down.
One filer well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 1,027 records, more than five times the fifth-place total of 198. That gap alone accounts for a large share of the top-5 concentration figure.
A steep drop-off after the top five
Filing counts fall from 198 at fifth place to 108 at tenth, a much gentler slope than the drop from first to fifth. This is where mid-sized specialty chemical and paper-process firms compete for remaining claim space.
Even the leaders have slowed sharply
Recent-year filings for the largest assignees have dropped by 80-100% year over year, with several logging zero filings in the latest year. That pattern, combined with the 2021-2024 complete-year decline, suggests the core chemistry is heavily claimed and filers are shifting effort elsewhere.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Kemira Oyj | 2 | -88% |
| Solenis Technologies Cayman LP | 1 | -80% |
| Procter & Gamble Co | 0 | -100% |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
| Hercules Inc | 0 | — |
| Ecolab USA Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Ciba Specialty Chemicals Water Treatments Ltd | 0 | — |
| Nalco Co | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The landscape points to a mature core with a thinning filing rate at the top and specific branches still open. Two directions follow from that.
Map claim boundaries before filing in the core
With 45.0% of all records held by the ten leading assignees, a freedom-to-operate check against those portfolios specifically, not just a generic keyword search, is the first step before drafting new claims in dewatering or charge-density control.
Explore assignee portfolios in Eureka →Test the under-claimed branches for real headroom
Shear-stable emulsion formulations and dissolution-rate control sit outside the densest classes. Confirming that thinness holds up against full-text claim language, not just IPC tagging, is worth doing before committing R&D budget.
Run a white-space search in Eureka →Common questions on this landscape
Filing activity is concentrated among a small group of specialty chemical and paper-process companies, with the leading assignee holding 1,027 records against a fifth-place total of 198. The top five assignees combined account for 33.9% of all 6,569 records in scope, and the top ten reach 45.0%. Beyond that group, filings spread across a long tail of companies with far smaller portfolios, so competitive risk is concentrated rather than evenly distributed.
Using complete-year data, filings fell from 192 in 2021 to 132 in 2024, a 31% decline over that span, after peaking at 432 filings in 2017. Recent-year figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual drop in filing activity. The safest read is that the field has cooled meaningfully since its 2017 peak, based on the years that are actually complete.
D21H, covering pulp and paper compositions, touches 44.8% of the 6,569 records in scope, making it the single largest class by a wide margin. C02F water and wastewater treatment follows at 17.9%, with C11D detergents, C08L and C08F polymer compositions each near 10%. A prior-art or freedom-to-operate search limited only to water-treatment classifications would miss the majority of relevant filings, since flocculant chemistry is claimed heavily through paper-manufacturing applications.
US5906750A claims a family of sludge-dewatering methods that combine a polyquaternary amine, such as a DADMAC or epi-DMA type compound, with polyacrylamide, across five distinct configurations differing in sequence and combination of the two agents. It is a 1999 filing from ClearValue Technologies and sits within thermophilic-digestion sludge treatment specifically. Work that uses a different primary coagulant chemistry, or that departs from the specific addition sequences claimed, would need its own freedom-to-operate review rather than assuming this patent controls the whole dewatering space.
The densest claim coverage sits in pulp and paper compositions and general water treatment, leaving branches like shear-stable inverse emulsion formulations, real-time dissolution rate control and charge-density tuning for low-temperature dewatering comparatively thin. These are not unclaimed, but filing density there is much lower than in the core classes. Confirming genuine headroom requires checking full claim language in those branches rather than relying on IPC class counts alone.
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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.