Silicone Elastomer Recycling Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2023 at 84 families, then the pace has not been sustained through 2026 — this looks like a claim-space race that already crested rather than one still building.
- C08J and C08G dominate at 199 and 191 records respectively, meaning polymer processing/solutions and condensation-polymer chemistry carry almost all of the claim density; additive and adhesive subclasses trail far behind.
- Momentum is cooling across nearly every tracked assignee, with several large filers showing 0 filings and -100% YoY in the latest year, which points to consolidation rather than an active filing war.
Filing growth compares 2021 (56 records) with 2024 (80) — 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 401 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the silicone elastomer recycling patent record shows
Silicone elastomer recycling sits at the intersection of established polysiloxane chemistry and a newer mandate to reclaim cured, cross-linked silicone rather than landfill it. The dataset behind this page covers 401 patent families published between 2015 and 2026, drawn from filings that combine silicone rubber or polysiloxane language with recycling, depolymerisation or chemical-recycling claim terms. Filing activity rose steadily through the late 2010s, peaked in 2023, and has not returned to that level since — a pattern more consistent with an early land-grab on core reclaim chemistry than with a technology still in its growth phase.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in any trend line understate real filing activity for those years and should not be read as a decline on their own. The more reliable signal here is the shape of the curve through the peak, and the concentration of records in condensation-polymer and polymer-processing IPC subclasses, which shows where the chemistry is actually being claimed.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 401-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
A 2023 peak that has not been repeated
Filings climbed from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 84 in 2023, passing through 29 at the 2022 midpoint. The years since the peak sit below it, and 2026 is still a partial year, so the honest read is a technology whose core claim territory was staked out heavily around 2022-2023.
Claim density concentrated in two subclasses
C08J (polymer processing and solutions) and C08G (condensation polymers) each appear in roughly half of all records, far ahead of C08L compositions, C08K additives, C07C carbocyclic compounds, and the smaller B29B, B32B and C09J counts. Reclaim and depolymerisation chemistry is being claimed primarily as processing method and as condensation-polymer route, not as formulation additive or laminate structure.
Shares are the percentage of the 401 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Silicone Elastomer Recycling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about silicone elastomer recycling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
WO2025111126A1 — Silicone rubber compositions (Dow Silicones)
This disclosure relates to curable high temperature vulcanizable (HTV) silicone rubber compositions comprising physically recycled and/or reclaimed condensation-cured elastomeric silicone particulates, the elastomeric materials cured from those compositions, and a method for preparing them.Filed by Dow Silicones Corporation, published 2025-05-30 — claims physically recycled silicone particulate as a functional filler inside a curable HTV system, rather than as a standalone reclaim process.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6384125B1 | Chemically modified silica fillers, process for producing, and silicone compositions containing same | 84 |
| 2 | US4343715A | Immobilized hemoglobin, and processes for extracting oxygen from fluids using the same | 49 |
| 3 | EP0835901A2 | A method for preparation of recycled polyols and a method for manufacturing polyurethane foams | 42 |
| 4 | US4427416A | Processes for extracting oxygen from fluids using immobilized hemoglobin | 27 |
| 5 | US20110111673A1 | Antislipping tape and textile products | 25 |
| 6 | WO2022042909A1 | Depolymerization of polyurethanes under mild conditions | 22 |
| 7 | WO2014130948A1 | Method of recycling silicone waste with the use of organic polymer and depolymerization catalyst | 20 |
| 8 | WO2022042910A1 | New depolymerization method for polyurethanes | 19 |
| 9 | WO2014093995A1 | Reaction products containing hydroxyalkylterephthalates and methods of making and using same | 18 |
| 10 | JP1989247433A | Expandable organosiloxane composition | 14 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older records; they are not a ranking of current commercial importance.
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 filing strategy
Four read-throughs of the trend, IPC and receiving-office data that matter more than the raw counts on their own.
The claim rush has already happened
Volume rose from 2 filings in 2017 to a peak of 84 in 2023, then has not matched that level since. Combined with the ~18-month publication lag, this reads as a technology whose foundational reclaim and depolymerisation methods were staked out in a concentrated window rather than filed continuously.
Two subclasses carry the field
Polymer processing/solutions (C08J) and condensation polymers (C08G) between them touch nearly every family in this dataset, ahead of compositions, additives and adhesives. New entrants working outside processing-method or condensation-chemistry claims face a comparatively less crowded field.
US and Europe anchor the filing map
The United States leads receiving-office counts, with the European Patent Office and WIPO's PCT route close behind, and India, Canada and Australia trailing well behind those three. Freedom-to-operate work should prioritise US and EP prosecution over any assumption that this is a China-centric filing pattern.
Cooling activity among established filers
Several previously active assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year against a -100% year-over-year change, while others post small single-digit counts. This is consistent with a field consolidating around already-filed claims rather than one where large players are still racing to stake new ground.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to silicone elastomer recycling, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
Filing here has never been dominated by a single runaway leader; instead it shows a moderately concentrated core of chemical and industrial groups alongside a long tail of single-filing entrants, with a handful of durable co-assignee research partnerships.
Sinopec's internal research pairing leads co-filing
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset pairs a Sinopec research institute with its parent company across 26 shared families, well ahead of the next-strongest academic-industry pairings.
Elkem Silicones ties into French public research
Elkem Silicones France's simplified joint-stock entity co-files with the French national centre for scientific research (CNRS) across 13 families, and separately with Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 across 9, showing a sustained academic collaboration route into this chemistry.
No assignee is currently accelerating
Among the assignees with visible recent-year activity, the best performance is flat year-over-year; several others recorded declines up to -100%. Prospective filers are not walking into an arms race — they are walking into a field where the incumbents have largely stopped adding to their claim positions.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation | 2 | -33% |
| Northwestern University | 2 | 0% |
| Elkem Silicones France SAS | 1 | -67% |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | 1 | -50% |
| Evonik Operations GmbH | 0 | -100% |
| BASF SE | 0 | -100% |
| Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry | 0 | — |
| China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The filing and IPC data point to a field whose core claims are largely staked; the open questions now are about specific claim scope and freedom-to-operate.
Check freedom-to-operate against the 2023 peak cohort
The families filed around the 2023 peak are the ones most likely to define enforceable claim boundaries in processing and condensation chemistry. Run a claim-by-claim comparison before committing to a reclaim process design.
Explore in EurekaTrack the cooling assignees for lapses or licensing openings
Assignees showing -100% YoY may be deprioritising this space, which can create licensing or acquisition opportunities on dormant but still-live families.
Monitor assignees in EurekaScope the under-claimed adjacent branches
Laminate-compatible and adhesive-grade reclaim routes show thinner coverage than the dominant subclasses. A first-filed claim there faces less prior art to design around.
Search white space in EurekaCommon questions on silicone elastomer recycling patents
This dataset tracks 401 patent families published between 2015 and 2026 that combine silicone rubber, silicone elastomer or polysiloxane language with recycling, depolymerisation or chemical-recycling claim terms. That figure counts families rather than raw document publications, which is the fairer unit because it removes duplicate counting from continuations and multi-jurisdiction filings of the same invention. Filing activity rose from just 2 families in 2017 to a peak of 84 in 2023, and has not matched that peak since, though the most recent years are understated due to publication lag.
The assignee ranking shows a moderately concentrated core of chemical and industrial groups rather than one dominant leader, alongside a long tail of single-filing entrants. Sinopec's internal research institute and its parent company form the strongest co-filing relationship in the dataset at 26 shared families. Several established filers, including large silicone and specialty-chemical producers, show flat or declining year-over-year activity in the most recent tracked year, which suggests the field is consolidating around existing filings rather than seeing new aggressive entrants.
IPC subclass data shows claim density concentrated in C08J (polymer processing and solutions) and C08G (condensation polymers), which together touch roughly half of all 401 families in this dataset. This means most patented approaches frame silicone reclaim either as a processing method applied to cured elastomer, or as condensation-polymer chemistry acting on siloxane bonds. Formulation-additive approaches (C08K) and adhesive or laminate integration (C09J, B32B) are claimed far less often, which points to those as comparatively open areas for new filers.
The United States leads receiving-office counts at 105, followed by the European Patent Office at 89 and the WIPO PCT route at 71; India, Canada and Australia trail well behind at 42, 30 and 13 respectively. This distribution indicates that freedom-to-operate and prosecution strategy should prioritise US and European filings, since that is where the bulk of enforceable claim scope in this field currently sits. It is not primarily a China-centric filing pattern based on the receiving-office data available here.
WO2025111126A1, published 2025-05-30, claims curable high-temperature-vulcanisable (HTV) silicone rubber compositions that incorporate physically recycled or reclaimed condensation-cured elastomeric silicone particulates, along with the cured materials and preparation method. It frames recycled silicone as a functional filler inside a new curable system rather than as a standalone depolymerisation or reclaim process. Anyone developing an HTV silicone product that uses reclaimed particulate filler should review this filing's specific claim language on particulate form and cure conditions before finalising a formulation.
The trend data shows filings climbing from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 84 in 2023, with the years since sitting below that peak and 2026 still a partial year at 8 filings so far. Recent-year momentum by assignee reinforces this: several previously active filers show 0 filings in the latest tracked year against year-over-year changes as steep as -100%. Read together, this looks like a technology that had its most concentrated filing period around 2022-2023 rather than one still accelerating, though the true 2025-2026 picture will only be clear once the publication lag closes.
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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.