Solid Biomass & Pellets Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing is concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees hold 33.1% of all 4,001 records in scope, and the leading ten hold 48.9% — a field with a clear head and a long tail below it.
- Hydrocarbon oils and refining dominates the claim space. C10G covers 41.3% of records, more than any other IPC subclass, with fuels and firelighters (C10L) a distant second at 25.2%.
- Filing has cooled from its 2017 peak but not stalled. Filings ran from 164 in 2017 to 89 in 2024 (down 29% from 125 in 2021), with 2025-2026 figures still understated by publication lag.
Filing growth compares 2021 (125 records) with 2024 (89) — 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 4,001 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 4,001 published records at the intersection of solid biomass and pellet feedstocks with conversion, upgrading and fuel composition claims — the search spans feedstock preparation, catalytic and thermal conversion routes, and the resulting fuel products. Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 cut-off, capturing both the early wave of pyrolysis and gasification filings and the more recent catalytic upgrading work. The dataset is dominated by petroleum-refining-adjacent claims: C10G, the hydrocarbon oils and refining subclass, touches 41.3% of records, signalling that much of the activity sits on co-processing biomass alongside conventional refinery feedstocks rather than building stand-alone biomass-only plants.
Assignee concentration is real but not extreme: the leading company holds 564 records, well ahead of the field, yet the ranked leaders extend to 100 companies with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants below the top ten. Receiving-office data shows the United States as the dominant jurisdiction, with Europe, the WIPO PCT route, Canada, India and Australia forming a secondary tier — a pattern consistent with a technology still being filed regionally rather than globalised through a single dominant route.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 4,001-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings peaked at 164 in 2017 and eased to 89 by 2024, a 29% decline from the 125 filed in 2021. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures (down to 10 in the partial latest year) are not yet complete and should not be read as a collapse in activity.
IPC subclass composition
C10G (hydrocarbon oils and refining) leads at 41.3% of records, followed by C10L (fuels and firelighters) at 25.2%, C10B (coke and destructive distillation) at 15.8%, and B01J (catalysis) at 15.3%. Fermentation and enzymatic synthesis (C12P) and gasification (C10J) each sit below 15%, marking them as smaller but still active claim areas. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,001 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Solid Biomass & Pellets Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about solid biomass & pellets patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Co-Processing Solid Biomass In A Conventional Petroleum Refining Process Unit (US20130068997A1)
Preparing solid biomass particles for catalytic conversion includes agitating solid biomass particles and providing a biomass-catalyst mixture to a conventional petroleum refinery process unit. The biomass-catalyst mixture includes the solid biomass particles and a catalyst. Agitating solid biomass particles includes flowing a gas to provide a velocity to at least a portion of the solid biomass particles sufficient to reduce their sizes. Co-processing a biomass feedstock and a conventional petroleum feedstock includes liquefying at least a portion of a biomass-catalyst mixture and co-processing at least a portion of the liquefied biomass feedstock and a conventional petroleum feedstock in a refinery unit.Filed by MARD, INC., a Shell-linked entity, this record sits squarely in the co-processing route that C10G's 41.3% share reflects — using existing refinery infrastructure rather than building dedicated biomass conversion plants.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090234146A1 | Methods and compositions for extraction and transesterification of biomass components | 292 |
| 2 | US7905990B2 | Rapid thermal conversion of biomass | 224 |
| 3 | US20080009055A1 | Integrated photobioreactor-based pollution mitigation and oil extraction processes and systems | 210 |
| 4 | US20120317872A1 | Process to produce biofuels from biomass | 184 |
| 5 | US20100256428A1 | Hydropyrolysis of biomass for producing high quality liquid fuels | 180 |
| 6 | US20060014260A1 | Lower cellulase requirements for biomass cellulose hydrolysis and fermentation | 172 |
| 7 | US20080033188A1 | Catalytic process for producing furan derivatives in a biphasic reactor | 159 |
| 8 | US20050095183A1 | Process and apparatus for biomass gasification | 155 |
| 9 | US20110258914A1 | Methods for integrated fast pyrolysis processing of biomass | 153 |
| 10 | US20130109896A1 | Process to produce biofuels via organic phase thermal hydrocatalytic treatment of biomass | 150 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; they signal influence on later filers, not present-day importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Four read-throughs from the filing trend, the technology composition, and the assignee data.
The 2017 peak has not been repeated
Filings ran from a peak of 164 in 2017 down to 89 in 2024, a 29% decline from the 125 filed in 2021. That is a real cooling in the complete-year data, but 2025-2026 figures are still filling in under the roughly 18-month publication lag and should not be read as a continuation of the drop.
Refining-adjacent claims dominate
C10G, hydrocarbon oils and refining, appears in 41.3% of the 4,001 records in scope — far ahead of C10L (fuels, 25.2%) or B01J (catalysis, 15.3%). That weighting points to co-processing and refinery integration as the most heavily claimed route, rather than stand-alone biomass conversion plants.
A clear leader, then a long tail
The five leading assignees hold 33.1% of all 4,001 records, and the leading ten hold 48.9%. The single leader holds 564 records, well clear of fifth place at 159 and tenth place at 108 — a steep drop-off that leaves the remaining ranked companies with comparatively thin portfolios.
Co-filing is rare and mostly one relationship
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairing (86 shared records) is far ahead of the next tier (22 each). Co-filing activity is not a broad feature of this field; it is concentrated in one corporate family's internal filing structure.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to solid biomass & pellets patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space, and where the momentum has gone
The leading filer's position is not matched by recent activity — the momentum data shows a field where the historic leaders have largely stopped filing in the latest tracked year.
One company well clear of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 564 records, more than three times fifth place (159) and more than five times tenth place (108). That gap is the steepest single-step drop in the ranking and defines the shape of the whole field: one dominant filer, then a much flatter distribution below it.
A workable second tier, then a long tail
Fifth place sits at 159 records and tenth place at 108 — both still substantial portfolios, but the combined top-10 share (48.9% of all 4,001 records) shows how much of the remaining ground is split across the other 90 ranked companies.
Most tracked leaders show no latest-year filings
Several of the historically largest assignees in this dataset show zero filings in the latest tracked year, and one shows a 100% year-over-year decline. That does not necessarily mean exit from the field — recent filings are still working through publication lag — but it does mean the visible activity has shifted away from the incumbents who built the early portfolio.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. | 1 | -50% |
| KiOR, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Shell Oil Company | 0 | — |
| Gas Technology Institute | 0 | — |
| Ensyn Renewables, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Beta Renewables S.p.A. | 0 | — |
| Anellotech, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Biochemtex S.p.A. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next questions for R&D and IP teams working in solid biomass conversion.
Map the co-processing claim boundary
With C10G claims covering 41.3% of records, the practical question for anyone entering refinery co-processing is exactly where the incumbent's claims stop and a design-around begins.
Explore claim boundaries in EurekaWatch for re-entry after the momentum dip
Several historically dominant assignees show near-zero filings in the latest tracked year; whether that is exit or simply publication lag will become clear as 2025-2026 data fills in.
Track assignee filing activity in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Sub-areas like torrefaction pre-treatment and enzymatic pyrolysis-oil upgrading carry thinner filing density than the core refining classes, which is where new claims have room to stand.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on solid biomass and pellet conversion patents
The dataset's ranking covers 100 companies, with the leading assignee holding 564 records against a fifth-place figure of 159 and a tenth-place figure of 108. The top five combined account for 33.1% of all 4,001 records in scope, and the top ten combined account for 48.9%. That leaves a long tail of smaller filers below the leading group, so the field is concentrated at the top but far from a monopoly.
Filings peaked at 164 in 2017 and fell to 89 by 2024, a 29% decline from the 125 filed in 2021 — based on complete-year data only. Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 appear much lower, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, not an actual collapse in activity. Any read of the trend should stop at the most recent complete year rather than extrapolate from the partial tail.
Hydrocarbon oils and refining (IPC class C10G) is the largest single category, touching 41.3% of the 4,001 records in scope, which points to co-processing biomass within conventional refinery infrastructure as the most heavily claimed approach. Fuels and firelighters (C10L) follows at 25.2%, with coke and destructive distillation (C10B) and catalysis (B01J) each above 15%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should not be treated as a breakdown of the whole field into non-overlapping slices.
Filing density is comparatively thin in specific sub-areas such as biomass-catalyst co-feed ratio control, low-temperature torrefaction pre-treatment, and enzymatic upgrading of pyrolysis oil, relative to the heavily claimed refining and fuels classes. These branches sit adjacent to the dominant C10G and C10L activity but have not attracted the same claim density, which typically means more room to file a defensible first claim rather than working around an incumbent's position. A freedom-to-operate search focused on these specific sub-areas is more productive than searching the broad category headings.
US20130068997A1, assigned to MARD, INC., covers agitating solid biomass particles with a gas flow to reduce particle size and co-processing the resulting biomass-catalyst mixture alongside a conventional petroleum feedstock inside a standard refinery process unit. It sits inside the C10G co-processing cluster that accounts for 41.3% of records in this dataset, so anyone building a refinery-integrated biomass conversion process should check its specific claim language on particle agitation and feedstock mixing ratios rather than assuming the whole co-processing concept is blocked. Design-around routes typically involve alternative particle-preparation methods or feedstock combination points outside the claimed process sequence.
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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.