This dataset tracks 195 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine supercritical fluid or supercritical CO2 extraction terminology with claims around co-solvent use, selectivity, pressure-temperature conditions, extraction yield or solvent recovery, filtered to the B01D11, C11B1 and A23L5 IPC classes. The true global count for supercritical fluid extraction broadly is larger, since this scope deliberately excludes filings outside those process and equipment classes. Family counts are the fairer unit to cite than raw document counts because they remove duplicate continuation and multi-jurisdiction filings of the same invention.

The ranking in this corpus does not show one dominant assignee; instead it shows a long tail of academic institutions, mid-size chemical and food companies, and individual inventors, several with only one or two filings each. Named organisations that do appear with multiple filings include consumer goods and chemical companies, but every one of them shows zero filings in the most recent tracked year. That pattern indicates a field where portfolios were built earlier in the decade and are now being held rather than actively expanded.

Slowing, based on the trend in this dataset. Filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2020, then fell to 4 by the 2022 midpoint and continued declining toward the most recent partial year. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the final one to two years in any such count will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be, but the multi-year decline from the 2020 peak predates that lag effect and looks like a genuine slowdown.

US12662390B2, assigned to the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and published mid-2026, claims a method for supercritical fluid extraction of metal from a source using a reactor chamber, an optional chelating agent, a solvent heated and compressed above its critical point, and recovery of a metal-bearing chelate. It is notable in this corpus for targeting metal recovery specifically, a use case that appears in almost none of the other 195 families, which cluster around botanical, food and pharmaceutical extraction. Anyone designing a supercritical CO2 or supercritical fluid process for metal or mineral recovery using a chelating agent should review this claim set closely, since it sits in largely unoccupied claim space rather than a crowded one.

The clearest gaps sit outside the dominant B01D separation-apparatus core, in application classes with far lower filing density: A61P therapeutic activity and C07C acyclic and carbocyclic compounds each show only 13 families against B01D's 163. Metal and mineral recovery, as in the University of Toronto filing, is another thinly-populated branch. Continuous-flow processing for food-grade output and fine-tuned co-solvent selectivity for polar actives also show fewer filings relative to the core apparatus claims, making them reasonable areas to scout before assuming the space is occupied.