Fastest
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 →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/urea-synthesis-and-granulation-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Chemical Process RoutesUrea Synthesis and Granulation Patents: Concentration at the Top, Growth Still Building
- 82.8% of records sit with five filers. Top 5 assignees combined account for 82 of the 99 records in scope — a field where the claim space near core synthesis and granulation routes is already staked out.
- Filing has not peaked. The midpoint year (2022) shows zero in the trend data even as the peak (2019, 14 filings) has passed, meaning the accelerating pattern is recent rather than historic — and the most recent year is still undercounted due to publication lag.
- C07C dominates, B05B is almost untouched. 77.8% of records touch acyclic/carbocyclic compound classes, while spraying and atomising (B05B) appears in only 1.0% of records — a visible gap next to a crowded core.
99
Published Records
83%
Top-5 Share of All Records
US
Leading Jurisdiction
22
Active Filers Ranked
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this patent set covers
This landscape covers urea synthesis and granulation: the reaction chemistry that forms urea, the biuret and corrosion control problems that follow from it, and the downstream granulation and prilling steps that turn molten urea into a saleable solid. The search combines core process terms with claim-language filters on biuret formation, stripping and recycle, corrosion in synthesis section, granule crushing strength and dust emission — the specific engineering failure modes that generate patentable improvements in this field.
The scope spans 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, with 99 published records in total. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend line will understate true filing activity.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Urea Synthesis and Granulation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
10,000 free credits to start
The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 99 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend: growth resumed after a flat spell
Filings ran from zero in 2017 up to a peak of 14 in 2019, then eased back toward a flat midpoint in 2022 before accelerating again toward the most recent partial year — a pattern consistent with a technology that periodically gets re-energised by feedstock price cycles and fertiliser-plant capital spending rather than one moving in a single steady line.
IPC composition: synthesis core versus separation and analysis
C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) appears in 77.8% of the 99 records and C05C (nitrogen fertilisers) in 37.4%, confirming this is fundamentally a reaction-chemistry field. B01J (catalysis and physical processes) at 44.4% and B01D (separation) at 18.2% show the stripping, recycle and catalytic steps are well represented too, while G01N (testing, 4.0%), C10L (fuels, 2.0%) and B05B (spraying/atomising, 1.0%) are thin — these are the classes worth checking first for open claim space.
Shares are the percentage of the 99 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Urea Synthesis and Granulation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Urea Synthesis and Granulation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about urea synthesis and granulation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
The most-cited prior art
Representative Filing
EP2362863B1 — Urea granulation process with acidic scrubbing and ammonium salt integration
THYSSENKRUPP FERTILIZER TECHNOLOGY GMBH
Filed by Thyssenkrupp Fertilizer Technology and granted with a priority date reaching back to 2017-06-14, this filing addresses the acidic scrubbing and ammonium-salt integration route to urea granulation — the same technical approach that produced the two highest-cited records in this dataset (WO2010060535A1 and EP2192099A1), both cited well above every other record in scope.German-language original title translated for readability.
Highest-citation records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2010060535A1 | Urea granulation process with an acidic scrubbing system and the subsequent integration of ammonium salt into… | 97 |
| 2 | EP0155735A1 | Process for the preparation of urea | 46 |
| 3 | EP2192099A1 | Urea granulation process with an acidic scrubbing system and the subsequent integration of ammonium salt into… | 41 |
| 4 | US3406201A | Urea synthesis | 36 |
| 5 | US2979421A | Urea granulation process | 29 |
| 6 | US3725210A | Method of removing unreacted materials remaining in urea synthesis effluent by plural stage distillation and … | 19 |
| 7 | US3091637A | Dual cycle urea synthesis process | 17 |
| 8 | US20150133689A1 | Urea granulation process with scrubbing system | 15 |
| 9 | US3636106A | Process for urea synthesis | 15 |
| 10 | US3607938A | Process for the synthetic manufacture of urea from ammonia and carbon dioxide | 15 |
Citation counts reflect an older-skews-higher bias: a document filed a decade ago has had far more time to accumulate citations than one filed last year, so treat this as a map of influence, not of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Urea Synthesis and Granulation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
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 →Insights
What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC split are read together.
Concentration
82.8%
of 99 records held by top 5 assignees
The core routes are already claimed by a small group
With 82 of 99 records held by five assignees, and 98 of 99 (99.0%) held by ten, this is a field where nearly every record in scope traces back to a small set of process licensors and engineering contractors. A new entrant filing on core synthesis or granulation mechanics is filing into dense, well-defended prior art.
Top 10 assignees cover 99.0% of records in scope.
Momentum
2019 → 14
peak filing year, midpoint 2022 at zero
Growth is recent, not a long steady climb
The trend line shows a 2019 peak, a flat midpoint at 2022, and acceleration since — not a field that has been quietly climbing for a decade. That timing detail matters for anyone reading the trend as a signal of where R&D spend is heading next, rather than where it has already been.
Most recent year (2026) is a partial, publication-lag-affected count.
Technology mix
1.0%
of records touch B05B (spraying/atomising)
Spraying and atomising sits almost outside current claims
Against 77.8% coverage in the core C07C reaction-chemistry class, B05B appears in just one of 99 records. Dust emission and crushing-strength claims exist mostly inside the granulation classes (C05C, B01J) rather than in atomisation-specific mechanics, which is a narrower, less-contested place to stake new claim language.
C05C (nitrogen fertilisers) covers 37.4% of records for comparison.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to urea synthesis and granulation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Urea Synthesis and Granulation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
Twenty-two companies make up the entire ranked list the dataset returns — this is not a top-50 or top-100 cut, it is everyone with a ranked filing in scope. Leadership is concentrated, and recent-year momentum has cooled across the named leaders even as the overall trend accelerates.
Leader
36
records
A clear single leader by volume
The top-ranked assignee holds 36 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 5 — a gap that signals one organisation has built a broad portfolio across synthesis and granulation process variants rather than a single flagship patent family.
Tenth place holds just 1 record.
Momentum
0 in latest year
for most named leaders
Recent-year filing has gone quiet among the leaders
Several of the most active historical filers, including the entities behind the largest portfolios, show zero filings in the latest year, with one leader down -100% year over year. Only one tracked assignee shows any activity in the latest year at all, which is consistent with publication lag rather than necessarily a real pullback.
Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Collaboration
6
co-assignee pairs identified
Joint filing is rare and mostly single-instance
Only six co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairing appears twice while the rest appear once each. This is a field where organisations largely file alone rather than through joint ventures or co-development arrangements.
Strongest pair links two process-engineering specialists.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Casale SA | 1 | — |
| Stamicarbon B.V. | 0 | -100% |
| Uhde Fertilizer Technology GmbH | 0 | — |
| Toyo Engineering Corporation | 0 | — |
| CHEMICAL CONSTRUCTION CORP | 0 | — |
| Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Unie van Kunstmestfabrieken B.V. | 0 | — |
| Henan Xinlianxin Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Urea Synthesis and Granulation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Taking this further
The figures here describe the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means working the specific claims, not just the aggregate counts.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top-cited records
The five most-cited records, including the two acidic-scrubbing granulation filings, define the boundaries most new filings will need to design around.
Run a claims comparison in EurekaTrack the leader's recent activity
A leader with 36 records and zero recorded filings in the latest year is either pausing or simply not yet visible due to publication lag — worth monitoring directly.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaExplore the under-claimed branches
Spraying/atomising and in-line testing classes carry a fraction of the filing density of the core reaction chemistry — early claims there face a thinner prior art wall.
Explore white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Urea Synthesis and Granulation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about urea synthesis and granulation patents
The ranked leader in this dataset holds 36 of the 99 records in scope, with the next four ranked assignees combining with the leader for 82 records total, or 82.8% of all records. This means a small number of process-licensing and fertiliser-engineering firms account for the vast majority of documented filings. Anyone assessing freedom to operate in this field should start with the top few assignees rather than treating the field as fragmented, since the long tail below tenth place is thin — tenth place holds only 1 record.
Yes, based on the trend data available: filings ran from zero in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2019, eased to zero at the 2022 midpoint, and have been accelerating since. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent year in the trend (2026, partial) understates real activity, so the true current filing rate is likely higher than the raw count shows. Readers should treat the last one to two years of any patent trend line as a floor, not a ceiling.
Biuret is an unwanted by-product formed during urea synthesis at elevated temperature and residence time, and it is harmful to some crops when present above threshold levels in fertiliser-grade urea. Because controlling biuret levels is a persistent process-engineering problem, claim language addressing biuret formation appears throughout the reaction-chemistry and process-control patents captured in this dataset. It is one of the specific technical failure modes, alongside corrosion and dust emission, used to scope this search rather than a separate technology on its own.
Based on IPC composition, spraying and atomising (B05B) appears in only 1.0% of the 99 records in scope, compared with 77.8% for core acyclic-compound chemistry (C07C) and 37.4% for nitrogen fertiliser classes (C05C). In-line material analysis and testing (G01N, 4.0%) and urea-derived fuel applications (C10L, 2.0%) are similarly thin. These lower-density classes are the more realistic places to file a defensible new claim, since the core synthesis and granulation mechanics are already covered by a concentrated set of leading assignees.
In this dataset, the top 5 assignees account for 82.8% of all 99 records and the top 10 account for 99.0%, which is a high level of concentration for a chemical process field. This pattern typically reflects a technology tied to large-scale industrial plant licensing, where a handful of engineering contractors and licensors design most of the world's active capacity. New entrants without an existing process-licensing position should expect dense prior art on any core synthesis or granulation claim and should look toward the thinner IPC classes identified in the technology composition data.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Urea Synthesis and Granulation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Urea Synthesis and Granulation in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole urea synthesis and granulation 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.