Produced Water Desalination Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Produced Water Desalination and Reuse Patents: Who Leads and Where the Filings Are Headed
Filings up 240% from 2021 to 2024, climbing from 5 to 17 records a year before the most recent, still-incomplete years. Annual filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2024, a 240% increase over the 2021-to-2024 span. The 2025 and 2026 counts are still filling in as later publications land, so the apparent tail-off should not be read as a slowdown.
- 1RGT UNIV OF CALIFORNIA23.9%
- 2CLEAN H2O TECH LLC10.9%
- 3SALTWORKS TECHNOLOGIES INC10.9%
- 4NEW MEXICO TECH UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PARK CORP10.9%
- 5HYDROZONIX LLC8.7%
See the full produced water desalination and reuse 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
Common questions on produced water desalination patents
Who holds the most patents in produced water desalination?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 11 of the 46 records in scope, well ahead of the rest of the group. The top 5 assignees together account for 65.2% of all records, and the top 10 account for 93.5%, so the field is concentrated among a relatively small number of filers rather than spread evenly. Anyone entering this space should expect to compete directly against, or design around, that leading portfolio rather than finding wide-open ground at the top of the ranking.
Is patent filing in this field growing or slowing down?
Filings grew sharply from 5 in 2021 to 17 in 2024, a 240% increase, which points to an accelerating rather than a maturing field. The counts for 2025 and 2026 look lower, but that is expected: publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so the most recent years are still incomplete in any patent dataset. Treat 2024 as the last year with a reasonably reliable count and wait for later years to fill in before reading a slowdown into the trend.
What technology areas dominate produced water desalination patents?
Separation processes (IPC class B01D) and water and wastewater treatment (C02F) dominate, appearing on 60.9% and 52.2% of the 46 records respectively. Earth and rock drilling (E21B) appears on only 8.7% of records, meaning most patent activity targets the treatment mechanics — membranes, filtration, chemistry — rather than downhole or well-related hardware. Thermal and control-system classes such as F24D and G05B remain minor by comparison, each at 6.5% or below.
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 Produced Water Desalination and Reuse 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.