Refrigeration Compressors for LNG Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
Refrigeration Compressor Patents for LNG: Who Leads and Where the Field Is Open
Concentrated at the top. The five most active filers hold 47.4% of the 274 records in scope, and the leading assignee alone accounts for 57 records — more than double the fifth-place filer's 11. Volume rose to a peak of 31 in 2018, then eased. The 2021-to-2024 span shows a 14% decline (7 to 6), and 2025-26 counts are still incomplete given the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication — treat the most recent bars as a floor, not a ceiling.
- 1EXXONMOBIL UPSTREAM RESEARCH COMPANY(US)57
- 2COMPRESSOR CONTROLS CORP27
- 3CARRIER CORP20
- 4AKER SOLUTIONS AS15
- 5EDWARDS VACUUM LLC11
See the full refrigeration compressors for lng 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 this landscape
Who holds the most patents on LNG refrigeration compressors?
The dataset ranks 87 companies, and one assignee leads clearly with 57 records, more than five times the count held by the fifth-place filer at 11 records. The top five filers combined hold 47.4% of the 274 records in scope, so the field is concentrated at the top but not dominated by a single monopoly position. Below the top ten, filing counts drop into single and low double digits across a long tail of companies, each typically holding only a handful of records.
Is patent filing for LNG compressor technology growing or slowing?
Filing peaked in 2018 at 31 records and has settled lower since; the most recent complete comparison, 2021 to 2024, shows a 14% decline from 7 to 6 filings. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those years should not yet be read as evidence of a continuing slide. A fair read is that volume has cooled from its peak rather than that the technology area is being abandoned.
Which technical areas within LNG compressor patents are most crowded?
F25B refrigeration and heat-pump technology and F25J gas liquefaction and separation are the two densest classes, each touching roughly a third of the 274 records in scope. F04D non-positive-displacement pumps and F02C gas-turbine plants form a secondary tier in the 13-16% range. Electrical classes covering motor design and drive control are comparatively lightly claimed, each sitting at around 7% of records.
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 Refrigeration Compressors for LNG 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.