Sustainable Aviation Fuel Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing nearly quadrupled in three years — from 51 records in 2021 to 164 in 2024 (+222%), with 2023 the peak year so far at 192 records.
- The top five assignees hold 32.8% of the field — 201 of 613 records, concentrated well before the ranking reaches its tenth entrant at 14 records.
- Hydroprocessing dominates the claim map — C10G (hydrocarbon oils & refining) touches 50.6% of records, more than three times the share held by fermentation-route class C12P.
Filing growth compares 2021 (51 records) with 2024 (164) — 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 613 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the sustainable aviation fuel patent record shows
The dataset covers 613 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, searched against terms spanning feedstock pretreatment, catalytic upgrading, fuel fractionation, carbon intensity and product upgrading. It captures the technical routes producers and refiners are actually claiming, not just the marketing language around sustainable aviation fuel as a category. Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the most recent one to two years in any trend will understate real filing activity.
Patent families are used in the assignee ranking rather than raw document counts, which keeps aggressive continuation practice and multi-jurisdiction filing from inflating any single company's position. The picture that emerges is one of a field moving from feedstock and agronomy claims toward refinery-integration and catalytic upgrading claims, with fermentation and electrolytic routes still comparatively thin.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 613-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight today.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings sat near zero in 2017 and climbed through the early 2020s to a peak of 192 records in 2023. The rise from 51 records in 2021 to 164 in 2024 is a +222% increase over three years; 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C10G (hydrocarbon oils & refining) appears in 50.6% of records and C10L (fuels & firelighters) in 29.9%, confirming that refinery-side upgrading and finished-fuel-quality claims dominate. Separation processes (B01D, 17.0%) and inorganic feedstock chemistry (C01B, 14.4%) form a second tier; fermentation (C12P, 7.8%) and electrolytic production (C25B, 6.2%) remain the smallest documented routes, despite significant public attention to alternative feedstocks.
Shares are the percentage of the 613 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaA representative recent filing
Aromatics blending for high SAF blend ratios with synthetic paraffinic kerosene
The filing (WO2025243245A1, BP P.L.C., 2025-11-27) claims a sustainable aviation fuel blend combining 50-92 vol% synthetic paraffinic kerosene with low aromatic content and 8-50 vol% of a petroleum-derived aromatic-containing compound, defined by specific boiling-point, viscosity and aromatic-content parameters tested to ASTM and IP methods.Filed close to the data cut-off, this record illustrates the current direction of claim drafting: precise blend-ratio and fuel-property windows rather than broad feedstock or process claims.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130144090A1 | Renewable jet fuel derived from biomass | 21 |
| 2 | WO2010143980A1 | A process for integration of a methanol plant and an oil hydroprocessing plant | 21 |
| 3 | WO2019046968A1 | Methods of agricultural production of brassica carinata oilseed crop | 16 |
| 4 | US20200275617A1 | Methods of agricultural production of brassica carinata oilseed crop | 16 |
| 5 | US20130144098A1 | Direct conversion of biomass oxygenates to hydrocarbons | 16 |
| 6 | US20130144094A1 | Renewable gas oil derived from biomass | 14 |
| 7 | US20130144091A1 | Renewable diesel fuel derived from biomass | 13 |
| 8 | US20230383194A1 | Method for the production of low carbon jet fuel | 9 |
| 9 | WO2020148343A2 | Preparation of biofuel from biomass | 9 |
| 10 | WO2013085980A1 | Renewable jet fuel derived from biomass | 9 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence rather than current relevance.
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 filing strategy
Three figures from the dataset carry direct implications for where new claims can still land cleanly.
The field has a firm head start, not a monopoly
201 of 613 records sit with the five leading assignees, but the gap to the tenth-ranked entrant at 14 records is wide. That gap is where a well-drafted process or blend claim still has room to stand on its own prior art.
Momentum is recent and steep
Filing volume moved from 51 records in 2021 to 164 in 2024, with 2023 the highest single year recorded at 192. That growth curve suggests the technology moved from exploratory to commercially urgent within a short span, likely tracking blending-mandate and offtake-agreement timing.
Refining-side upgrading is the most contested ground
Half of all records in scope carry a C10G classification, meaning hydroprocessing and refinery-integration claims sit on the densest prior art in the field. Fermentation (C12P, 7.8%) and electrolytic routes (C25B, 6.2%) are comparatively open by contrast.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to sustainable aviation fuels patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the next filer could still stand out
The ranked leaders span integrated oil majors, dedicated SAF technology developers and agricultural feedstock specialists, but the ranking thins quickly after the top tier.
Refining incumbents hold the largest single positions
The leading assignee's 52 records reflect a strategy of claiming across the refining and upgrading chain rather than a single breakthrough process, consistent with the dataset's heavy weighting toward C10G classifications.
The drop-off after the top five is steep
By the tenth position filing counts have fallen to 14 records, roughly a quarter of the leader's total. Recent-year momentum data shows several previously active filers now at zero or sharply reduced year-on-year activity, suggesting some early movers have shifted from filing to licensing or scale-up.
A long tail of single- and few-filing entrants
Beyond the ranked leaders, the field includes agricultural feedstock developers, thermal and process-heat specialists, and aerospace manufacturers filing narrower, application-specific claims rather than broad process coverage.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Gevo Inc | 2 | -78% |
| Duke Technologies LLC | 2 | -67% |
| Nuseed Global Innovations Ltd | 1 | — |
| ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Co | 0 | -100% |
| UOP LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Infinium Technology LLC | 0 | -100% |
| GranBio Intellectual Property Holdings LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Haldor Topsoe AS | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying a filing gap.
Screen the under-claimed branches before drafting
Electrolytic and fermentation routes carry far fewer records than refining-side upgrading, which means a narrower prior-art search is needed before committing claim language there.
Explore white space in Eureka →Track the leaders' recent momentum, not just their totals
Several top-ranked assignees show sharply reduced year-on-year filing, which changes how much freedom-to-operate risk their existing portfolios actually pose going forward.
Run assignee momentum analysis in Eureka →Common questions on sustainable aviation fuel patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 52 of the 613 records in scope, with the top five assignees combined accounting for 32.8% of all records. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of companies, including feedstock developers, refiners and aerospace manufacturers, each holding smaller, more specific positions. Filing volume alone does not indicate technical superiority; it indicates how much claim territory a company has staked out.
Hydrocarbon oils and refining processes (IPC class C10G) appear in 50.6% of the 613 records, making refinery-side catalytic upgrading and hydroprocessing the most densely claimed area. Fuel and firelighter claims (C10L) follow at 29.9%. Fermentation-based routes and electrolytic production methods are present but far less common, at 7.8% and 6.2% of records respectively, suggesting these areas remain comparatively open for new filings.
Filing activity grew sharply through the early 2020s, rising from 51 records in 2021 to 164 in 2024, a +222% increase over three years, with 2023 the peak year recorded so far at 192 records. Apparent lower counts in 2025 and 2026 reflect publication lag of roughly eighteen months rather than an actual slowdown, since recent filings have not all published yet. Any conclusion about a plateau or decline based on the last one to two years of data would be premature.
Based on IPC composition, electrolytic production methods, fermentation-derived hydrocarbon upgrading, and carbon-intensity certification methodologies all carry comparatively few records relative to the dominant refining-side classes. Non-food feedstock pretreatment and aromatics-content blend optimisation for cold-flow performance also show less claim density than core hydroprocessing. These are reasonable starting points for a freedom-to-operate search rather than guaranteed gaps, since absence of dense prior art in an IPC class does not guarantee an open field once full-text claims are reviewed.
The United States receives the largest share of filings in this dataset at 185 records, followed by WIPO PCT filings at 153, the European Patent Office at 86, and Canada at 52. Australia and India follow at 28 and 27 records respectively. This distribution reflects where SAF production, blending mandates and offtake activity are most commercially active, rather than where the underlying research originates.
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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.