Sustainable Aviation Fuel Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Pathway Patents: Who Leads and Where Filings Are Heading
48.3% of the field sits with five companies. the top five assignees hold 695 of 1,438 records in scope — concentration is real, but more than half the field remains outside that group. Annual filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 414 in 2024, with 36 recorded so far in 2026 — a partial year that will fill in as later publications catch up. The 2021-to-2024 span alone accounts for the +399% growth figure used across this page; treat 2025 and 2026 as still-arriving data rather than a slowdown.
- 1ROLLS ROYCE PLC361
- 2HALDOR TOPSOE AS109
- 3EXXONMOBIL TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING CO87
- 4SHELL INTERNATIONALE RESEARCH MAATSCHAPPIJ BV72
- 5NESTE OYJ66
See the full sustainable aviation fuel pathways 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 on SAF pathway patents
What counts as a sustainable aviation fuel pathway in patent terms?
In this landscape, a pathway patent typically combines a conversion route — such as alcohol-to-jet, hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids, or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis — with a claim tied to a certification parameter like aromatic content, freezing point, carbon intensity or blend limit. A route alone rarely stands as a strong claim because ASTM D7566 certification requirements shape what a usable fuel must satisfy. That is why the search scope in this dataset pairs process terms with specification terms rather than treating them separately.
Who are the leading patent filers in sustainable aviation fuel?
The ranking covers 100 companies built from patent families, with the leading assignee holding 361 of the 1,438 records in scope and the top five combined holding 695 records, or 48.3% of the field. That leaves a long tail of companies each holding a much smaller share, so a new entrant’s competitive exposure is not evenly distributed — it concentrates around the leading group’s claim families. Full names and rankings are shown in the assignee table on this page rather than repeated here.
Is the sustainable aviation fuel patent field still growing?
Yes, through the most recent complete year: filings rose from 83 in 2021 to 414 in 2024, a documented +399% increase. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in the raw trend, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual drop in activity. Any assessment of current momentum should treat 2024 as the last reliable data point.
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 Sustainable Aviation Fuel Pathways 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.