Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Materials Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing has plateaued, not accelerated. Activity peaked in 2024 after a flat middle stretch through 2022, suggesting the current wave of electrode-material claims has already been staked rather than still building.
- The US is the dominant filing venue by a wide margin. United States receipts outnumber the next office (Japan) more than two to one, ahead of Europe, WIPO, South Korea and China.
- Co-filing clusters around one Korean automotive-university axis. The strongest assignee pairings all involve the same three organisations, pointing to a tight applied-research partnership rather than broad industry collaboration.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (19) — 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 79 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of solid oxide electrolyzer (SOEC) system claims and advanced electrode materials — perovskite electrode material, doped ceria, oxygen electrode material and nanostructured electrode constructions — filtered to the ceramics and electrolytic-production IPC classes that carry the underlying materials science. It is a materials-first cut of a broader SOEC field: system-level electrolysis claims that do not specify electrode chemistry are excluded by design.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off. Because publication trails filing by roughly eighteen months, the 2025–2026 counts in any trend view are undercounts of actual filing activity, not a sign the field has gone quiet.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 79-family set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A flat-to-declining trend after a 2024 peak
Filings ran at 5 in 2017, climbed to a midpoint of 15 by 2022, and peaked at 19 in 2024. There is no clear multi-year acceleration; the profile reads as steady, incremental filing around an established materials set rather than a land grab.
Claim density sits in electrolytic production and fuel-cell classes
C25B (electrolytic production of compounds) appears in 73 of 79 records and H01M (batteries, cells & fuel cells) in 38, confirming the corpus is anchored in electrolysis-cell construction. C04B (ceramics) and the smaller coating-related classes (C23C, B05D) show the materials-processing side is present but comparatively thin — a hint at where processing-route claims remain open.
Shares are the percentage of the 79 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about solid oxide electrolyzer advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
EP4177381A1 — Solid oxide electrolysis cell with an electrolysis-tolerant air-side electrode
The filing describes an SOEC with a fuel-side electrode and an air-side electrode built from a barrier layer containing a first doped ceria material and a functional layer combining an electrically conductive material with a second doped ceria material.Filed by Bloom Energy Corporation; published 2023-05-10.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20060166070A1 | Solid oxide reversible fuel cell with improved electrode composition | 91 |
| 2 | US20160355932A1 | Method for operating an SOEC-type stack reactor for producing methane in the absence of available electricity | 53 |
| 3 | US20170292197A1 | Carbon gasification assisted solid oxide electrolysis cell | 26 |
| 4 | US20190194816A1 | Process for starting mode or stand-by mode operation of a power-to-gas unit comprising a plurality of high-te… | 25 |
| 5 | KR1020130047534A | Solid oxide fuel cell and solid oxide electrolysis cell including Ni-YSZ fuel(hydrogen) electrode, and fabric… | 25 |
| 6 | WO2017116307A1 | A promising co- electrolyzer for the direct use of FLUE gas from power plant | 20 |
| 7 | US20180066371A1 | Method for preparing fuel electrode of solid oxide electrolysis cells embedded with bimetallic catalyst | 20 |
| 8 | WO2018080571A1 | Solid oxide electrolysis with internal heater | 15 |
| 9 | CN108103524A | 一种固体氧化物电解池及其制备方法 | 13 |
| 10 | US20230155214A1 | Electrolyzer system with steam generation and method of operating same | 12 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older records such as US20060166070A1 lead by default. Treat the ranking as a map of influence within this searched set, not a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. 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 a filing decision
Three read-outs from the trend, geography and citation data, translated into what they imply for where to file and what to expect there.
The wave has already crested
Volume rose from 5 in 2017 to a 2024 peak of 19, without the kind of runaway curve that signals an emerging sub-field. A plateau after growth usually means the core chemistries — perovskite and doped-ceria electrodes — are already well staked, and new entrants are filing into occupied space rather than opening it.
The US is the primary battleground
United States receipts outnumber Japan, Europe, WIPO, South Korea and China individually, and roughly match Japan and Europe combined. Freedom-to-operate work that skips a US search is skipping the office carrying the largest share of this art.
Influence skews to early foundational filings
The most-cited record dates back well before the SOEC materials wave documented here, a reminder that citation counts favour age over relevance. Newer perovskite and nanostructured-electrode filings will look under-cited for years regardless of their actual technical weight.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to solid oxide electrolyzer advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Hyundai Motor Company | Kia Motors Corporation | 4 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | UI (UNIVERSITY IND FOUNDATION) YONSEI UNIVERSITY | 3 |
| Kia Motors Corporation | UI (UNIVERSITY IND FOUNDATION) YONSEI UNIVERSITY | 3 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) | 2 |
| Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) | Kia Motors Corporation | 2 |
| Dongeui University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation | Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) | 2 |
| Dongeui University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation | UNIST Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation | 2 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Kia Corporation | 1 |
Ten co-assignee pairs exist in this corpus, but the strongest three all sit inside one cluster — a Korean automotive group and a university technology-transfer office — rather than spreading across the field.
Who is filing, and where the activity has gone quiet
Momentum data shows several previously active assignees recording zero filings in the latest year, which is as informative as the ranking itself.
Several established filers have gone to zero
Assignees including major ceramics, automotive and energy-technology names show zero filings in the latest tracked year with a -100% year-over-year change. Given the 18-month publication lag, some of this is reporting delay rather than a genuine stop, but the breadth of the pattern across unrelated organisations is notable.
Collaboration is narrow and academic-industrial
The strongest co-assignee pairings connect an automotive group with its affiliated brand and a university industry-foundation partner. That pattern reads as applied research funnelled through one long-running partnership rather than a broad supplier ecosystem collaborating on materials.
Filing strategy is US-anchored, Asia-supported
With the United States taking the largest single share and Japan and South Korea together adding a substantial Asian filing base, the competitive set is best tracked across US, Japanese and Korean prosecution rather than any single jurisdiction.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Bloom Energy Corporation | 0 | — |
| Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) | 0 | — |
| Precision Combustion, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Hyundai Motor Company | 0 | -100% |
| Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) | 0 | — |
| Kia Motors Corporation | 0 | -100% |
Working with this landscape
The dataset answers where filing has concentrated and gone quiet; turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate position takes a closer read of specific claims.
Check freedom-to-operate before drafting
With 30 of 79 families receiving in the US and citation influence concentrated in a handful of foundational filings, a targeted FTO search against the most-cited records is a faster first step than a full landscape re-run.
Run an FTO check in Patsnap EurekaTrack the assignees that went to zero
Several previously active filers show -100% year-over-year activity. Confirming whether that is a real pullback or a publication-lag artefact changes how much weight to put on the current ranking.
Monitor assignee activity in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
This landscape is scoped to patent families that combine SOEC or solid oxide electrolysis system claims with specific electrode-material terms: perovskite electrode material, doped ceria, oxygen electrode material, and nanostructured electrode constructions. It excludes system- or process-level SOEC patents that do not specify an electrode chemistry. The IPC filter further anchors the set to electrolytic production (C25B), fuel-cell (H01M) and ceramics (C04B) classifications, so purely mechanical or balance-of-plant claims fall outside scope.
Not clearly. Filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a midpoint of 15 in 2022 and peaked at 19 in 2024, but that is a plateau rather than sustained acceleration. Because publication lags filing by about eighteen months, the drop shown for 2025 and 2026 is partly a reporting artefact, but even accounting for that, the shape of the curve does not show the field is still in a growth phase.
Start with the United States, which receives 30 of the 79 families in this corpus — more than double the next office. Japan (13) and Europe (9) are the next most important, followed by WIPO PCT filings (7), South Korea (6) and China (4). A search limited to any single non-US office will miss the largest share of the relevant art.
The corpus shows concentration among a small group of ceramics, automotive and energy-technology filers, alongside a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants including university technology-transfer offices. Several of the most active historical filers, including major Japanese ceramics and automotive names, show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, which may reflect either a genuine pullback or publication lag rather than a market exit. Co-filing activity is concentrated in one Korean automotive-and-university cluster rather than spread broadly across the leaderboard.
The IPC composition shows heavy claim density in electrolytic production (C25B, 73 of 79 records) and fuel cells (H01M, 38), but comparatively thin coverage in ceramics processing (C04B, 6) and surface-deposition routes (C23C, B05D, 3 and 2 respectively). That gap suggests processing and manufacturing claims around perovskite and doped-ceria electrodes — rather than the base chemistries themselves — are less occupied and worth a closer novelty search before drafting.
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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.