Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Filing has grown +4% from 2021 to 2024, the last full year in scope, after peaking at 217 records in 2022 — a plateau, not a retreat.
- Ownership is not concentrated: the top 5 assignees hold only 15.3% of the 3,401 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 21.8%, leaving a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
- Gasification dominates the claim map, with C10J present in 34.9% of records, well ahead of fuel composition (C10L, 23.2%) and refining/upgrading (C10G, 21.9%).
Filing growth compares 2021 (157 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 3,401 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset spans 3,401 published patent families filed or published between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, drawn from records combining biomass gasification, pyrolysis and related thermochemical conversion terms with downstream language on feedstock conversion, fuel composition, product upgrading and gasification reactor design. It captures the technical stack from reactor engineering through syngas cleanup to finished fuel blends, rather than any single unit operation in isolation.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity; treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than as a genuine slowdown.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,401-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend: steady, not surging
Annual filings ran from 168 records in 2017 to a peak of 217 in 2022, then held at a +4% net gain from 157 in 2021 to 164 in 2024 — the last year that can be read as complete. The apparent drop into 2025 and 2026 (down to 16) reflects publication lag, not a retreat from the field.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
Gasification process claims (C10J) touch 34.9% of records, ahead of fuel and firelighter composition (C10L, 23.2%), hydrocarbon oil refining and upgrading (C10G, 21.9%), inorganic gas chemistry (C01B, 20.8%), destructive distillation (C10B, 16.5%), catalysis (B01J, 15.0%), gas purification (C10K, 12.0%) and acyclic/carbocyclic compounds (C07C, 10.3%). Records commonly carry several of these classes at once, which is why the shares sum to well over 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,401 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about thermochemical biomass conversion patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US20140194284A1 — Methods of activating charcoal resulting from biomass gasification
Methods for activating charcoal resulting from biomass gasification are provided. Exemplary methods include gasifying biomass in a gasification reactor of an integrated biomass gasification system to produce charcoal, and activating that charcoal using heat generated from an integral heat source of the same system, increasing the value of biomass gasification with minimal added investment.Filed by Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., published 2014-07-10.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080193989A1 | Energy Efficient Methods to Produce Products | 370 |
| 2 | US5504259A | Process to convert biomass and refuse derived fuel to ethers and/or alcohols | 270 |
| 3 | US20090217575A1 | Biomass Char Compositions for Catalytic Gasification | 246 |
| 4 | US20050175533A1 | Combustion looping using composite oxygen carriers | 245 |
| 5 | US20110092726A1 | System for cultivation and processing of microorganisms, processing of products therefrom, and processing in … | 232 |
| 6 | US5059404A | Indirectly heated thermochemical reactor apparatus and processes | 216 |
| 7 | US20090253947A1 | Production of Blended Fuel from Renewable Feedstocks | 215 |
| 8 | US20170341942A1 | Methods and systems for large scale carbon dioxide utilization from lake KIVU via a co2 industrial utilizatio… | 208 |
| 9 | US20100228062A1 | Process and system for thermochemical conversion of biomass | 197 |
| 10 | US20080115415A1 | System and process for producing synthetic liquid hydrocarbon | 183 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not as a marker of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and citation data that matter for where to file next.
No single owner controls the field
The five leading assignees together hold 15.3% of all 3,401 records in scope, and the ranked ten hold 21.8%. That leaves the large majority of filings spread across a long tail of companies, each holding a handful of families — a structure that rewards a specific, well-drafted claim over broad portfolio pressure.
A plateau, not a decline
Filings rose from 157 in 2021 to 164 in 2024, a modest net gain after peaking at 217 in 2022. The dip visible in 2025-2026 data reflects the roughly 18-month publication lag rather than falling interest, so recent-year totals should not be read as a cooling trend.
Reactor and process claims are the most crowded
Gasification process art (C10J) appears in over a third of all records, meaning core reactor and process-condition claims sit on dense prior art. Fuel composition (C10L) and refining/upgrading (C10G) each cover roughly a fifth of records, still substantial but comparatively less saturated than the core gasification layer.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to thermochemical biomass conversion patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The leader board is broad rather than dominated by one company, and recent-year momentum by assignee suggests activity has slowed even among some of the more active historical filers.
A clear but non-exclusive leader
The top-ranked assignee holds 194 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 55 and tenth place at 41 — a steep drop-off after the leader rather than a tightly bunched top tier.
Breadth beyond the leaders
The ranking returned by the dataset covers 100 companies, not a curated top-50 or top-100 shortlist — it is the full list the data endpoint returns, and most of those names hold only a handful of families each.
Recent-year activity has cooled for named leaders
Several assignees that built meaningful portfolios earlier in the period show zero filings in the latest year, and one shows a -75% year-on-year drop from a small base. Given publication lag, this understates true current activity but still points to a market where leadership positions are not locked in.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon Technology Holdings, LLC | 2 | -75% |
| Ensyn Renewables, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Anellotech, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Neste Oyj | 0 | — |
| PlascoEnergy IP Holdings, S.L., Bilbao Schaffhausen Branch | 0 | — |
| Wuhan Kaidi Engineering Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| SUNGAS RENEWABLES INC | 0 | -100% |
| Research Triangle Institute | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and concentration data point to specific next steps depending on whether you are scoping freedom-to-operate or deciding where to file.
Check claim scope on the most-cited records
The highest-citation records, several from the 1990s and 2000s, still shape how examiners read gasification and biomass-to-fuel claims today. Reviewing their claim language before drafting new applications reduces the risk of overlap.
Explore citation chains in EurekaMap white space in under-claimed IPC branches
C07C and C10K carry noticeably lower record shares than C10J and C10L, suggesting more room to stake specific claims in upgrading chemistry and gas purification than in core reactor design.
Run a white space search in EurekaTrack momentum, not just historical share
Several assignees with meaningful historical portfolios show no filings in the latest year. Confirming whether that reflects publication lag or an actual pullback matters before treating any single company as the incumbent to watch.
Set up assignee alerts in EurekaCommon questions on thermochemical biomass conversion patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 194 of the 3,401 records in scope, with a steep drop to 55 records at fifth place and 41 at tenth. That gap indicates one company has built a materially larger portfolio than its nearest peers, but the top 10 combined still account for only 21.8% of all records, so no single company or small group controls the field outright. Freedom-to-operate work should still check the full 100-company ranked list rather than assuming the leader's portfolio is the only one that matters.
Filings grew a modest +4% from 157 records in 2021 to 164 in 2024, after peaking at 217 in 2022, so the honest read is a plateau rather than sustained growth or a decline. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look much lower, but that is expected: publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any patent trend are always undercounted. Treat 2024 as the last year with a reasonably complete picture.
C10J, gasification of fuels, appears in 34.9% of the 3,401 records in scope, making it the single most represented technology class in this dataset. Fuel and firelighter composition (C10L) and hydrocarbon oil refining and upgrading (C10G) follow at 23.2% and 21.9% respectively. Because a single patent record often carries several IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, and should be read as class prevalence rather than a strict market breakdown.
The comparatively lower record shares in C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds, 10.3%) and C10K (fuel gas purification, 12.0%) relative to core gasification claims (C10J at 34.9%) point to upgrading chemistry and gas-cleanup technology as areas with more room for a well-defined claim. The long tail of assignees, most holding only a few records each, also suggests specific process or catalyst formulations rather than broad reactor architecture are more likely to clear prior art. Any white-space read should be paired with a live search, since class-level shares do not capture claim scope directly.
US20140194284A1, filed by Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., covers a method of activating charcoal produced during biomass gasification using heat generated from an integral heat source within the same integrated gasification system. It is narrow in that it ties activation specifically to reuse of the system's own waste heat, rather than claiming charcoal activation broadly or gasification generally. A new filing that activates char using an external heat source, a different reactor integration, or a different activation chemistry would likely sit outside its claim scope, but that judgment requires reading the granted claims in full rather than the abstract alone.
Research Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole thermochemical biomass conversion patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.