Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycle Patents
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 67.0% of all 103 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 90.3% — a short list of organisations controls most of the documented claim space. Filings rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 23 in 2020, then declined; from 2021 (11) to 2024 (3) — the last year treatable as complete given publication lag — volume fell 73%. Later years (2025–2026) are still filling in and should not be read as a continuation of that decline.
- 18 RIVERS CAPITAL LLC24
- 2LIFECELL CORP19
- 3ENHANCED ENERGY GRP11
- 4HAMILTON SUNDSTRAND CORP8
- 5UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC7
See the full supercritical carbon dioxide power cycles 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
Who holds the most patents in supercritical CO2 power cycles?
The dataset’s leading assignee holds 24 of the 103 records in scope, well ahead of fifth place at 7 and tenth place at 2. The top 5 assignees combined account for 67.0% of all records, and the top 10 account for 90.3%. That means the field is concentrated in a short list of organisations, with a long tail of entrants that filed once or twice rather than sustaining a programme.
Is patent filing in sCO2 power cycles growing or slowing down?
Filings peaked at 23 in 2020, then fell from 11 in 2021 to 3 in 2024 — a 73% decline over that span, and 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as reasonably complete. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in the dataset are still filling in and should not yet be read as confirming a continued decline. The honest read is a pullback from a 2020 peak, not necessarily a technology in decline.
What technical problems dominate sCO2 power cycle patent claims?
Gas-turbine plant architecture (F02C, 43.7% of records) and steam/thermal power plant design (F01K, 42.7%) are the two most heavily claimed areas, with turbine and non-positive-displacement engine design (F01D, 17.5%) also prominent. Narrower problem areas named in the search scope, such as seal leakage, recuperator effectiveness and cycle material corrosion, appear less frequently in the class breakdown, suggesting these are comparatively under-claimed relative to overall cycle and turbomachinery architecture.
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 Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycles 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.