Thermal and Hybrid Desalination Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- 35.6% of all 1,114 records sit with just five assignees, so the leader board is genuinely concentrated rather than fragmented.
- Filing fell 62% from 2021 to 2024 (81 to 31 records), the steepest clean multi-year drop the trend data shows before the publication-lag window opens.
- C02F and B01D dominate the claim space at 56.6% and 40.8% of records respectively, while hybrid-configuration and waste-heat classes sit well behind.
Filing growth compares 2021 (81 records) with 2024 (31) — 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 1,114 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Thermal and hybrid desalination patenting spans two distinct engineering problems that the search terms deliberately couple: the thermodynamics of multi-effect distillation and waste-heat recovery, and the chemistry of managing scale formation and brine at the temperatures those cycles run at. 1,114 records published between 2015 and mid-2026 sit inside this scope, drawn from filings that reference thermal desalination or multi-effect distillation alongside at least one of scale formation, brine temperature, gain output ratio, waste heat source, hybrid configuration or capital cost.
The IPC composition confirms the field is anchored in water treatment and separation engineering (C02F, B01D) with a substantial thermal-power overlay (F01K, F28D, F02C, F22B) rather than being a pure chemistry or pure mechanical-engineering niche. That overlap is where hybrid configurations live, and it is also where filing activity thins out fastest.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,114-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across the IPC subclasses that describe the underlying engineering.
A peak in 2017, a clean decline through 2024
Annual filings peaked at 97 records in 2017 and had fallen to 31 by 2024, a 62% drop from the 2021 level of 81. Records from 2025 onward are still filling in, since publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the apparent tail-off in the most recent one to two years should not be read as continued decline.
Water treatment and separation lead; thermal-power classes trail
C02F (water and wastewater treatment) appears on 56.6% of records and B01D (separation processes) on 40.8%, confirming that most filings are framed as treatment or separation inventions even when a thermal cycle is central to the claim. F01K, F28D, F02C and F22B together describe the thermal-power side of hybrid systems but each sits under 22% of records, and H01M and F03G presence below 10% signals limited but real crossover into storage and auxiliary power.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,114 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Thermal and Hybrid Desalination with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about thermal and hybrid desalination and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this scope
Use of polymers of acrylic acid for scale inhibition in desalination systems
The filing covers an aqueous acrylic acid polymer solution for inhibiting scale formation in a desalination system, made by polymerising acrylic acid with a free-radical starter in the presence of hypophosphite in water, with a defined charging and addition sequence for the monomer, comonomers and starter.Filed by BASF SE, published 2024-07-11 — illustrates how scale-inhibition chemistry claims are being drafted around specific polymerisation sequences rather than the inhibitor chemistry alone.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20150143806A1 | Quintuple-Effect Generation Multi-Cycle Hybrid Renewable Energy System with Integrated Energy Provisioning, S… | 268 |
| 2 | US6262131B1 | Structured fischer-tropsch catalyst system and method | 229 |
| 3 | US6508936B1 | Process for desalination of saline water, especially water, having increased product yield and quality | 182 |
| 4 | US20150260463A1 | Systems and methods for energy storage and retrieval | 169 |
| 5 | US20180347406A1 | Quintuple-effect generation multi-cycle hybrid renewable energy system with integrated energy provisioning, s… | 102 |
| 6 | GB2395946A | Extracting sodium chloride from seawater, using nanofiltration | 96 |
| 7 | US20110056822A1 | Water Separation Under Reduced Pressure | 95 |
| 8 | US20180179917A1 | Variable Pressure Inventory Control of Closed Cycle System with a High Pressure Tank and an Intermediate Pres… | 92 |
| 9 | US20070107884A1 | Polymeric hollow fiber heat exchange systems | 92 |
| 10 | US8252092B2 | Water separation under varied pressure | 91 |
Citation counts are a signal of influence within this searched corpus, not a measure of current commercial relevance; they structurally favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations.
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 patterns stand out once concentration, IPC composition and the filing trend are read together.
The top of the field is genuinely crowded
With the leader alone on 156 records and the fifth-place assignee still at 39, new entrants filing broad multi-effect distillation claims will run into dense prior art from a small number of holders. The long tail below tenth place (21 records) is where most named organisations actually sit.
Treatment framing outweighs thermal-cycle framing
Claims drafted purely around the thermal cycle (F01K, F22B) are less common than claims framed as water treatment or separation, even in filings that clearly depend on a specific thermal configuration. That gap is worth checking before assuming a thermal-cycle claim has no adjacent treatment-side prior art.
Volume has genuinely cooled, not just lagged
The 2021-to-2024 window is fully published and shows a real 62% decline, from 81 to 31 records. That is a distinct signal from the 2025-2026 dip, which is a publication-lag artefact rather than evidence of a further slowdown.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to thermal and hybrid desalination, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 12 |
| CHANG HUEI MENG | RAJU NARAYAN D | 4 |
| CHANG HUEI MENG | LEE YEE CHUN | 4 |
| King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | ZUBAIR SYED | 3 |
| King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | LIENHARD JOHN | 3 |
| King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | GOVINDAN PRAKASH | 3 |
| General Electric Company | BL Technologies Inc | 3 |
| Surrey Aqua Tech | SHARIF ADEL | 2 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, and the strongest pair links a university research group to an academic partner rather than to an industrial co-filer — most organisations here file alone.
Who holds the ground, and where the gate is thin
The ranking spans 100 companies counted by patent family; the figures below describe that whole ranked set, not a top-50 or top-100 cut arbitrarily drawn by the page.
One filer sits well clear of the field
The leader's 156 records compare with 39 at fifth place and 21 at tenth, a steep drop-off that means the leader's claim scope is worth checking first for any new filing in the same sub-area.
The mid-field is thin, not absent
Once past the top five, per-assignee counts fall quickly, and the top 10 combined still account for less than half of all records (47.5%), leaving a genuine long tail of smaller and single-filing entrants.
Momentum has stalled across multiple named filers
Several organisations that built meaningful positions in earlier years show no filings in the latest year tracked, including at least one with a -100% year-over-year change. That is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 decline rather than specific to any one filer.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Malta Inc | 0 | — |
| Rondo Energy Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Surrey Aqua Tech | 0 | — |
| Crystal Lagoons (Curacao) BV | 0 | — |
| King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | 0 | -100% |
| X Development LLC | 0 | — |
| Air Products and Chemicals Inc | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy or technology scouting.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's claim set
With one assignee at 156 records and a further four holding the balance of the top-five concentration, any new multi-effect or hybrid-configuration filing should be checked against that group's granted claims before drafting.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaModel the hybrid thermal-treatment boundary
The gap between C02F/B01D coverage and F01K/F28D coverage marks a boundary where treatment claims and thermal-cycle claims rarely overlap explicitly. That boundary is a reasonable place to look for a defensible first claim.
Map IPC overlap in EurekaRevisit the trend once 2025-2026 fills in
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true 2025 filing level will not be visible until well into 2026 or later. Treat the current apparent decline in those years as incomplete data, not a settled trend.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranking covers 100 companies counted by patent family, and it is concentrated rather than flat: the leading assignee holds 156 records, the fifth-ranked holds 39, and the top five combined account for 35.6% of all 1,114 records in scope. Below that, per-assignee counts fall quickly, with a long tail of organisations holding only a handful of records each. Anyone assessing competitive exposure in this field should start with the top five before assuming the field is open.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 97 records and declined through the fully-published window, falling 62% from 81 records in 2021 to 31 in 2024. That decline is real and measured on complete data. The apparent further drop in 2025 and 2026 should not be read as continued decline, because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months and those years are still filling in.
Water and wastewater treatment (IPC class C02F) appears on 56.6% of the 1,114 records, and separation processes such as filtration (B01D) appear on 40.8%. Thermal-power-related classes, including steam and thermal power plants (F01K) and heat-exchange apparatus (F28D), each cover well under a quarter of records. Since a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and that overlap is itself informative about which filings bridge treatment and thermal-cycle engineering.
US20240228348A1, filed by BASF SE and published 11 July 2024, claims an aqueous acrylic acid polymer solution for inhibiting scale formation in desalination systems, made through a specific polymerisation sequence using a free-radical starter in the presence of hypophosphite. The claim is built around the manufacturing sequence and reagent staging rather than the inhibitor chemistry in the abstract, which narrows what it actually blocks. Formulations using a different addition order or a different starter system may sit outside its scope, but that needs a claim-by-claim comparison rather than an abstract-level read.
The clearest gaps sit where thermal-cycle IPC classes (F01K, F28D, F02C, F22B) meet treatment-side classes (C02F, B01D) at low combined coverage, particularly around waste-heat integration for gain-output-ratio improvement and brine-temperature-adaptive scale control. These are technically demanding areas, which is likely part of why filing density there is lower than in core treatment or core thermal-cycle claims. A first claim in this space would need to tie a specific heat source or exhaust stream to a specific treatment-side mechanism rather than claiming either half generically.
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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.