MOF Atmospheric Water Harvesting Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees hold 111 of 176 records in scope (63.1%), and the top ten hold 80.1% — a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants fills the rest.
- Filing nearly doubled in three years. Annual filings rose from 16 in 2021 to 34 in 2024, a +113% increase, before the usual 18-month publication lag understates the most recent years.
- Separation and catalysis dominate the claim space. B01D (separation processes) appears in 69.3% of the 176 records and B01J (catalysis/chemical processes) in 47.2%, while air-conditioning and cooling classes each sit under 9%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (34) — 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 176 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity where metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and related porous coordination polymers are claimed for capturing water directly from air. The scope spans 176 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from filings that combine MOF material claims with atmospheric or humidity water-capture applications. Most records describe sorbent composition, cyclic sorption-desorption apparatus, or system integration with cooling, ventilation or horticultural equipment.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend view are undercounts rather than a genuine slowdown. Family-level counts are used throughout so that continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates do not inflate any single assignee's apparent share.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 176-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings climbed from zero recorded activity in 2017 to a peak of 34 in 2024, with the 2021→2024 span showing +113% growth. 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as publications catch up with filing dates already on record.
IPC subclass composition
B01D (separation processes) covers 69.3% of the 176 records and B01J (catalysis and chemical processes) covers 47.2%, confirming that most claims center on the sorbent material and its cyclic regeneration rather than on the end-use appliance. E03B (water supply and distribution) appears in a third of records, while air conditioning (F24F), refrigeration (F25D), medicinal use (A61K) and horticulture (A01G) each remain under 10% — narrower, more exploratory branches by comparison.
Shares are the percentage of the 176 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Porous Materials & MOFs — MOF Atmospheric-Water Harvesting Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about porous materials & mofs — mof atmospheric-water harvesting patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Refrigerator Integrated With An Atmospheric Water Harvesting Unit, And Methods Of Using Thereof (US20250163685A1)
Provided herein are refrigerator systems integrated with an atmospheric water harvesting unit, as well as methods using such systems. The atmospheric water harvesting unit serves as a water supply for the refrigerator system by capturing water from surrounding air. For example, the water capture materials may be metal organic frameworks. The systems and methods desorb this water in the form of water vapor, and the water vapor is condensed into liquid water and collected. The liquid water is suitable for use as drinking water.Filed by Water Harvesting, Inc.; published 2025-05-22.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200282379A1 | Metal organic framework based water capture apparatus | 40 |
| 2 | WO2020034008A1 | Metal organic framework based water capture apparatus | 28 |
| 3 | US20200363078A1 | Metal organic framework based water capture apparatus | 27 |
| 4 | US11766636B1 | Modular open systems architecture direct air capture platform | 23 |
| 5 | US20220280915A1 | Aerogel for harvesting atmospheric water | 23 |
| 6 | WO2021067179A1 | Refrigerator integrated with an atmospheric water harvesting unit, and methods of using thereof | 22 |
| 7 | US20220190243A1 | Tunable Adsorption and Wetting | 19 |
| 8 | WO2023181058A1 | An adsorption moisture pump based air to water harvesting device and a method thereof | 17 |
| 9 | CN111565817A | 基于金属有机骨架的水捕获设备 | 16 |
| 10 | US20220389691A1 | Refrigerator Integrated With An Atmospheric Water Harvesting Unit, And Methods Of Using Thereof | 15 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had longer to accumulate citations within this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence rather than of current technical importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns worth acting on rather than just noting.
The field has a small set of anchor filers
The five leading assignees account for 111 of the 176 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 80.1%. A new entrant is filing into a space where a handful of organisations already hold dense coverage on core sorbent and apparatus claims, so freedom-to-operate work should start with those leaders' claim scope, not a broad keyword search.
Growth is real but recent leaders have gone quiet
Annual filings nearly doubled between 2021 and 2024, reaching a peak of 34. Several of the assignees who built early positions show zero filings in the latest tracked year — that may reflect publication lag as easily as a strategic pause, and should be checked against each organisation's most recent filing dates before drawing conclusions.
Separation-process claims are the crowded lane
B01D and B01J together touch roughly two-thirds and one-half of records respectively, meaning most competitive pressure sits on sorbent material and cyclic separation mechanics. Appliance-integration classes such as F24F and F25D sit far lower, at 8.5% and 6.3%, suggesting the apparatus-integration side of the technology is comparatively open.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to porous materials & mofs — mof atmospheric-water harvesting patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | École Normale Supérieure Paris | 4 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI Paris) | 4 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 | 4 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | HEINRICH HEINE UNIV DUSSELDORF | 4 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | MOF APPS AS | 2 |
Co-assignee pairings are limited: five identified pairs, with the strongest links running through a single French research organisation and its university partners, each appearing together on four records.
Who holds the ground, and what is still open
The ranked leaders sit alongside a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants; the technical branches below are where claim density thins out.
A clear filing leader, well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 38 of the 176 records in scope, roughly three times the fifth-place count of 13. That gap suggests an early and sustained filing programme rather than a single large family split across jurisdictions.
A cluster of active but smaller programmes
Places two through five sit well below the leader but still represent multi-record programmes, spanning research institutes, universities and specialist water-harvesting companies rather than a single industry segment.
Everything past the top ten is thin
With the top ten accounting for 80.1% of all records, the remaining 33 ranked assignees split the rest — mostly single-digit filers. That is where freedom-to-operate risk is lower but where a defensible position is also harder to build without a first-mover claim.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | 0 | — |
| Water Harvesting, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Ahbstra Engineering Ltd. | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | — |
| Bry-Air (Asia) Pvt. Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | 0 | -100% |
| Immaterial Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Johns Hopkins University | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next checks rather than a single conclusion.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top ten
With 80.1% of records held by ten assignees, a targeted claim-chart review of that group's core sorbent and apparatus filings will surface most collision risk before a broader search is needed.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaWatch the appliance-integration branches
Refrigeration, air-conditioning and horticultural integration classes each sit under 10% of records, well below the separation-process core, and look like the more open filing space for a differentiated apparatus claim.
Explore white space in EurekaRe-check momentum once 2025 fully publishes
Several leading assignees show no filings in the latest tracked year; publication lag of roughly 18 months makes it too early to call that a slowdown, so revisit the trend once the current year's filings finish publishing.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
This landscape identifies 176 published patent records covering metal-organic-framework materials applied to atmospheric or humidity water capture, filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026. The count is family-based, so continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates of the same invention are not double-counted. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the true figure for 2025 and 2026 filings will be higher once those records finish publishing.
Filing activity is concentrated: the five leading assignees together hold 63.1% of the 176 records in scope, and the top ten hold 80.1%. The single top-ranked assignee alone accounts for 38 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 13. Beyond the top ten, a long tail of 33 further ranked assignees each holds only a handful of records, so most of the competitive risk and the most mature claim positions sit with a small group of organisations.
Filings grew from 16 in 2021 to a peak of 34 in 2024, a +113% increase over that span, indicating real momentum through the most recently complete filing year. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in the raw data, but that reflects publication lag rather than an actual drop in filing activity — a patent application typically does not publish until about 18 months after it is filed. Any claim that the field is cooling off should wait until those years have had time to fill in.
Separation-process claims under IPC class B01D appear in 69.3% of the 176 records, and catalysis- and chemical-process claims under B01J appear in 47.2%, making sorbent composition and cyclic desorption the most crowded claim territory. Water-supply system claims (E03B) appear in a third of records. Appliance-integration areas such as air conditioning, refrigeration, medicinal use and horticulture each remain under 10%, marking them as comparatively open ground for new filings.
The under-claimed branches sit outside the dominant separation-and-catalysis cluster: refrigeration-cycle integration, horticultural water-capture systems, medicinal-grade purification using MOF sorbents, and air-conditioning-coupled desorption units all carry markedly fewer records than the core sorbent-material claims. A new filer with a specific apparatus-integration angle in one of these branches faces less prior art than one filing another general MOF sorption composition claim. That said, low filing density reflects occupied claim space elsewhere, not that these branches are technically unproven.
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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.