Pulverized Coal Injection Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 64.8% concentration. The top 5 of 74 ranked assignees account for 210 of 324 records in scope — filings sit heavily with a small group of steelmakers and gas suppliers.
- +31% three-year growth. Filings rose from 16 in 2021 to 21 in 2024, with 2022 the peak year so far at 61 records — recent years are still filling in as publications lag filing.
- Biocarbon citations dominate influence. The most-cited records are biocarbon pellet and blend patents, not classic coal-injection lance or tuyere designs — citation weight has shifted toward carbon-reduction feedstock work.
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (21) — 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 324 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the pulverized coal injection patent record shows
Pulverized coal injection (PCI) patenting sits inside a broader blast-furnace ironmaking effort to cut coke consumption and manage raceway combustion. The 324 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off and cluster around iron production process claims (C21B), with meaningful overlap into fuel formulation, coke chemistry and furnace control. The dataset captures both traditional lance and combustion-rate work and newer biocarbon substitute filings, which is why citation leaders and filing leaders do not fully overlap.
Filing activity built steadily through the late 2010s, peaked in 2022, and has since been reported at lower counts — a pattern that should be read cautiously given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication. The assignee base is concentrated at the top but includes a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants, including university and regional metallurgical institutes working on adjacent smelting applications.
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Filing trends and technology composition
324 published records make up this landscape, drawn from receiving offices led by Europe, the United States and India. The figures below use the denominators stated in the underlying data — record shares, not ranking shares.
A 2022 peak, then a lag-affected tail
Annual filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 61 in 2022, then eased to 21 by 2024 — still a +31% increase over the 2021 count of 16. Because publication trails filing by about 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 understate real filing activity rather than signal a slowdown.
Concentrated in iron production, spread across fuel and control classes
C21B (iron production, blast furnace) appears in 66.4% of the 324 records, by far the dominant class. C10L (fuels) and C10B (coke and destructive distillation) each cover roughly a sixth of records, reflecting how much PCI patenting sits at the fuel-feedstock boundary rather than purely in furnace mechanics. F27B, C01B, C22B, F27D and G05B each appear in single-digit-to-mid-teens shares, marking smaller but active adjacent classes around furnace hardware and process control.
Shares are the percentage of the 324 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Pulverized Coal Injection with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about pulverized coal injection and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records shaping this landscape
System for treating tin smelting intermediate materials and method for treating same (US20230111491A1)
Filed by Kunming University of Science and Technology, this record discloses a fuming-furnace system integrating a pulverized coal injection system with an electric settling furnace, water quenching pool, matte ladle, flue gas treatment and secondary air supply — aimed at tin smelting intermediates rather than blast furnace ironmaking.Its scope is metallurgical smelting of tin intermediates, not conventional blast furnace hot-metal production, which narrows where its claims actually reach.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8133298B2 | Blast furnace iron production with integrated power generation | 74 |
| 2 | US20220340818A1 | Biocarbon blends with optimized fixed carbon content, and methods for making and using the same | 61 |
| 3 | US20230020752A1 | Producing biocarbon pellets with high fixed-carbon content and optimized reactivity, and biocarbon pellets ob… | 57 |
| 4 | US20230015387A1 | Processes for producing biocarbon pellets with high fixed-carbon content and optimized reactivity, and biocar… | 51 |
| 5 | US20100064855A1 | Blast Furnace Iron Production with Integrated Power Generation | 48 |
| 6 | US20220396529A1 | Biocarbon blends with optimized fixed carbon content, and methods for making and using the same | 46 |
| 7 | JP1987263906A | Method for blowing pulverized coal from blast furnace tuyere | 43 |
| 8 | US20100146982A1 | Blast furnace iron production with integrated power generation | 34 |
| 9 | WO2022069498A1 | Computer system and method providing operating instructions for thermal control of a blast furnace | 30 |
| 10 | WO1986005520A1 | Improvements in or relating to ironmaking by means of a smelting shaft furnace | 29 |
Ranked by citation count within this searched corpus; older filings accumulate citations simply by being available longer, so treat this as a signal of influence, not current relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, trend and classification data are read together.
Filing sits with a small leadership group
With the leader alone credited with 69 records and the top 5 combined holding 210 of 324 records in scope, new entrants face dense prior art wherever the leaders have already staked claims — particularly in core lance and combustion-rate mechanics.
Fuel-chemistry classes are a growing second front
C10L and C10B each cover roughly 17% of records, showing that a substantial share of PCI patenting addresses fuel and coke formulation rather than furnace hardware — a boundary area where biocarbon and fixed-carbon feedstock claims increasingly compete with traditional coal-quality claims.
Citation leaders point away from tuyere and lance design
The most-cited records in this corpus address blast furnace power integration and biocarbon pellet production rather than raceway or tuyere combustion — a reminder that citation counts favour older, broadly-cited filings over the newest technical routes.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to pulverized coal injection, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it opens up
The ranked assignee list covers 74 companies across steelmakers, industrial gas suppliers and materials specialists, with momentum data showing where recent activity has picked up or gone quiet.
A biocarbon specialist is the one gainer
Carbon Technology Holdings shows 2 filings in the latest year against a prior baseline, a +100% year-on-year move, while several established steelmaking and engineering assignees — including Paul Wurth, JFE Steel and Air Products and Chemicals — show zero filings in the latest year after prior activity.
A long tail beyond the leaders
Beyond the top 10, the remaining 64 ranked assignees split the balance of records, many with single-digit filing counts — a pattern typical of a field with an established core group and a wide periphery of applied or regional filers.
Co-filing is limited and clustered
The strongest co-assignee pair in this dataset links Somerset Coal International and Somerset International with 4 shared records; a gas-and-process-research pairing tied to Air Liquide's process-study arm appears twice with two separate named co-inventors — otherwise co-filing is sparse.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon Technology Holdings, LLC | 2 | +100% |
| Paul Wurth SA | 0 | -100% |
| JFE Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Somerset Coal International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB) | 0 | — |
| POSCO Holdings Inc. | 0 | — |
| Kobe Steel, Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, technology scouting or portfolio positioning.
Map claim scope inside the top 5
With 64.8% of records held by five assignees, a claim-by-claim read of their core lance, tuyere and combustion-rate filings will show where new work must design around rather than build alongside.
Explore assignee filings in EurekaTrack the biocarbon citation cluster
The most-cited records concern biocarbon pellets and integrated power generation rather than classic PCI hardware, suggesting this adjacent branch deserves its own freedom-to-operate pass.
Trace citation networks in EurekaWatch the under-claimed control layer
G05B control and regulating claims appear in only 6.8% of records despite PCI's dependence on real-time combustion feedback, marking a plausible white-space branch.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about pulverized coal injection patents
The ranked list covers 74 assignees, with the leader credited with 69 of the 324 records in scope and the top 5 combined holding 210 records, or 64.8% of the total. This group spans integrated steelmakers, industrial gas suppliers and biocarbon materials specialists rather than a single dominant filer type. Beyond the top 10 — who together hold 78.4% of records — filing activity spreads thinly across a long tail of companies and research institutes with only a handful of filings each.
Filings rose from 16 in 2021 to 21 in 2024, a +31% increase, after peaking at 61 in the single year 2022. The apparent decline after 2022 should be read carefully: patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years in any trend chart are always undercounted. Based on the complete-year data through 2024, filing activity has grown rather than slowed.
C21B, the IPC class covering blast furnace iron production, appears in 66.4% of the 324 records and is by far the dominant classification. C10L (fuels) and C10B (coke and destructive distillation) each appear in roughly 17% of records, showing significant overlap between PCI patenting and fuel or coke chemistry work. Furnace hardware and control classes — F27B, F27D and G05B — each cover a smaller single-digit-to-mid-teens share, indicating comparatively less-claimed territory around furnace accessories and automated control.
Control and regulating systems (G05B) appear in only 6.8% of the 324 records despite PCI's dependence on real-time combustion feedback, and furnace detail/accessory claims (F27D) sit at 7.4% — both thinner than the dominant iron-production and fuel classes. Specific sub-areas such as raceway adiabatic temperature control, unburnt char recovery, and closed-loop tuyere combustion monitoring show less claim density relative to the core. These are starting points for a freedom-to-operate search, not guarantees of open space, since class-level shares do not capture claim-level detail.
It is concentrated but not closed: the top 5 of 74 ranked assignees hold 64.8% of the 324 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 78.4%. That leaves roughly a fifth of records spread across a long tail of over 60 companies and institutes, many with only one or two filings. For a new entrant, this means core claim territory near the leaders is likely well defended, while peripheral applications — such as the tin-smelting intermediate treatment system disclosed in US20230111491A1 — show more room to file distinct claims.
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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.