Packed Bed Thermal Storage Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (48 records) with 2024 (30) — 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 453 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What packed bed thermal storage patenting actually covers
Packed bed thermal energy storage uses a fixed bed of solid material — rock, ceramic, sand, or metal packing — as the medium that absorbs and releases heat as a fluid passes through it. The patent activity in this dataset spans 453 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search that captures both dedicated packed-bed storage claims and broader thermal-and-electrochemical storage filings that reference packed-bed configurations. Heat-exchange hardware, not battery chemistry, is where most of the claim activity sits.
The classification spread shows a field still anchored in mechanical and thermodynamic engineering: heat-exchange apparatus and heat-exchanger details together cover a large share of records, with steam/thermal power plants and gas-turbine plants close behind. Battery and electrochemical-cell classifications appear in a meaningfully smaller share, which matters for anyone assessing whether this is a materials play or a systems-integration play.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Figures below are drawn directly from the 453 records in scope. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so counts for 2025 and 2026 will continue to fill in and should not be read as a slowdown.
A peak in 2021, then a step down
Annual filings rose from 20 in 2017 to a peak of 48 in 2021, then declined to 30 by 2024 — a 38% drop over that three-year span, the last window the data can treat as complete. Readers should not extend that decline into 2025 or 2026, where counts are still being published.
Heat-exchange hardware dominates the classification mix
F28D (heat-exchange apparatus) appears in 40.6% of the 453 records, more than three times the share carried by H01M (batteries, cells & fuel cells) at 13.5%. F01K (steam & thermal power plants) sits close behind H01M at 13.0%, with F28F, F02C, F04B, B01D and B01J each in single-digit shares. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed.
Shares are the percentage of the 453 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Thermal Energy Storage: Packed Bed Storage Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about thermal energy storage: packed bed storage patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim and the most-cited prior art
US11624318B2 — Thermal energy storage system comprising packed-bed heat and cold storage units
The system stores electrical energy through a closed thermodynamic cycle using a compressor, a turbine, and two packed-bed storage units operated at different temperature levels. No environmentally hazardous or expensive materials are required. Loading runs the cycle as a counterclockwise heat-pump process, expanding heat from the compressor outlet at high temperature into the first packed-bed unit for storage.Filed by ENOLCON GMBH, published 2023-04-11.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5144962A | Flavor-delivery article | 1,447 |
| 2 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 861 |
| 3 | EP0430559A2 | Flavor-delivery article | 473 |
| 4 | WO2014153570A2 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 219 |
| 5 | US4192144A | Direct contact heat exchanger with phase change of working fluid | 147 |
| 6 | US20200020935A1 | Decomposition of silicon-containing precursors on porous scaffold materials | 111 |
| 7 | WO2018165610A1 | Decomposition of silicon-containing precursors on porous scaffold materials | 83 |
| 8 | WO2012150969A1 | Thermal energy storage for combined cycle power plants | 75 |
| 9 | CN106391002A | 一种纳米银/氧化石墨烯复合材料分散液及其制备方法和应用 | 57 |
| 10 | US20200036002A1 | Negative electrodes for electrochemical cells | 55 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside a searched corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on the field's vocabulary, not of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. 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 or freedom-to-operate decision
Three patterns stand out once families, geography and classification are read together.
One leader, then a long tail
The leading assignee alone holds 51 records, while the top 5 combined reach 141 records — 31.1% of all 453 in scope. The other 95 ranked assignees split the remainder thinly, which means most freedom-to-operate risk concentrates around a small number of portfolios rather than being spread evenly across the field.
Past the peak, but not necessarily cooling
Annual filings peaked at 48 in 2021 and had fallen to 30 by 2024, a 38% decline over that window. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete and should not be read as confirming a continued fall.
A mechanical-engineering field, not yet an electrochemical one
Heat-exchange apparatus (F28D) appears in 40.6% of the 453 records, roughly three times the 13.5% carrying battery or fuel-cell classification (H01M). Filing strategy for new entrants should account for this: claim space around exchanger geometry and packing configuration is far denser than claim space around storage-medium chemistry.
China and the US lead receiving offices, Europe and PCT close behind
China received 98 filings and the United States 81, with EPO at 62 and WIPO/PCT at 45. India's 40 filings and Australia's 22 suggest packed-bed storage is drawing filing interest well beyond the traditional US-Europe-Japan axis.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to thermal energy storage: packed bed storage patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The figures above establish the shape of the field. The next steps depend on whether the goal is competitive tracking, freedom-to-operate clearance, or identifying an open filing angle.
Map the leader's full portfolio
With 51 records held by a single assignee, understanding exactly which claim elements that portfolio covers — and which it leaves open — is the fastest way to find a non-overlapping filing position.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the H01M crossover
Only 13.5% of records carry a battery/fuel-cell classification alongside packed-bed thermal claims. As storage-medium chemistry work grows, this crossover class is worth monitoring for early movers.
Track emerging classifications in EurekaCheck freedom-to-operate against the top 10
The top 10 assignees combined hold 44.8% of all 453 records. Any new filing in packed-bed configuration or exchanger geometry should be checked against this concentrated set first.
Run a clearance search in EurekaCommon questions about packed bed thermal storage patents
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by family count, with one leader holding 51 of the 453 records in scope. The top 5 combined account for 31.1% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 44.8%, showing meaningful concentration at the top alongside a long tail of smaller filers. This is not a top-50 or top-100 list in the conventional sense — it is the complete ranking the underlying data endpoint returns, so treat the lower-ranked entries as genuinely thin filers rather than an artifact of a cutoff.
Filings rose from 20 in 2017 to a peak of 48 in 2021, then fell to 30 by 2024 — a 38% decline over that three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year the data can be treated as complete, because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Counts for 2025 and 2026 will keep rising as more filings publish, so it would be premature to call this a confirmed long-term decline based on the most recent years alone.
Heat-exchange apparatus (IPC class F28D) is the largest single category, appearing in 40.6% of the 453 records in scope — more than three times the 13.5% share carrying a battery or fuel-cell classification (H01M). Steam and thermal power plant classifications (F01K) sit close to H01M at 13.0%, with heat-exchanger details, gas-turbine plants, positive-displacement pumps and separation processes each appearing in single-digit shares. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should not be summed or compared against each other as a fixed pie.
By receiving office, China leads with 98 filings, followed by the United States at 81, the European Patent Office at 62, and WIPO/PCT filings at 45. India follows with 40 and Australia with 22. This spread indicates the technology is being pursued for protection across a wider set of jurisdictions than is typical for a narrowly mechanical storage technology, likely reflecting its relevance to both grid-scale energy storage and industrial heat recovery markets in multiple regions.
US11624318B2, assigned to ENOLCON GMBH and published 2023-04-11, claims a system using two packed-bed storage units operated at different temperature levels within a closed thermodynamic cycle involving a compressor and turbine, loaded via a counterclockwise heat-pump process. Anyone designing a dual-temperature packed-bed system with this specific loading sequence should review the claim scope closely before finalizing an architecture. It does not, on its own, block single-bed designs or systems that load via a different thermodynamic cycle, but it is a useful reference point for understanding how claim language in this space is currently being drafted.
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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.