VRFB Electrolyte & System Cost Patent Snapshot
The patent corpus on VRFB electrolyte and system cost is small and tightly concentrated, with Chinese industrial players holding the commanding share of filings. Activity surged notably in 2023, signalling renewed commercial urgency after several near-silent years, though the corpus remains early-stage and developing.
Suzhou Rongke Power leads a highly concentrated field
Suzhou Rongke Power Co Ltd is the clear frontrunner, holding 8 patent records — the single largest position in the ranking — in a corpus of 18 patent families in scope. The top five filers together account for 73% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, a concentration level that signals a narrow competitive circle controlling the primary innovation vectors.
Chinese entities are visible in the top of the ranking. The Rongke and Shanghai Electric clusters account for the bulk of records, leaving limited daylight between the leader and the immediately trailing applicants, each of whom hold 2 patent records.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suzhou Rongke Power Co Ltd | 8 | |
| 2 | Shanghai Electric Lingstorage Technology Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 3 | WattJoule Corporation | 2 | |
| 4 | Dalian Rongke Power Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 5 | Shanghai Electric (Anhui) Energy Storage Technology Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 6 | Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 1 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Tectonic Power Pte Ltd | 1 | |
| 8 | Liaoning Kejing New Materials Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 9 | Tianjin University | 1 | |
| 10 | Dalian Rongke Energy Storage Group Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 11 | Qingdao Qianyun High-Tech New Material Co Ltd | 1 |
Suzhou Rongke Power’s position implies it is setting the technical agenda for electrolyte formulation and cost management in VRFBs, while Shanghai Electric’s two affiliated entities (Shanghai Electric Lingstorage Technology and Shanghai Electric Anhui Energy Storage) represent an emerging second cluster with coordinated co-filing activity.
Records from 2024 and 2025 should be read with caution given standard patent publication lag; the true recent filing rate is likely higher than current counts suggest. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A 2023 surge dominates an otherwise sparse filing timeline
Two charts frame the competitive dynamics: annual filing volume over time, and the IPC technology-class composition of the corpus. Together they reveal both the timing of innovation waves and the technical routes being pursued.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity was minimal from 2019 through 2021, with zero records in each of those years. A sharp surge to 9 records in 2023 represents the visible event in the timeline, likely reflecting maturing grid-scale VRFB projects and intensifying cost-reduction mandates. Records for 2024, 2025, and 2026 are likely undercounted due to publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) is visible in with 20 records, confirming that most patenting addresses electrochemical cell architecture and electrolyte chemistry directly. Adjacent classes — C01G (compounds of other metals), C25B (electrolytic production of compounds), C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds), and C22B (metal extraction and refining) — each appear with 1–2 records, indicating that upstream vanadium chemistry and electrolyte synthesis routes remain relatively under-patented.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
ELEKTROLYT UND VANADIUM-REDOX-FLOW-BATTERIE
An electrolyte solution and an all-vanadium redox flow battery are disclosed. The electrolyte solution includes: a positive electrode electrolyte solution and a negative electrode electrolyte solution, the positive electrode electrolyte solution and the negative electrode electrolyte solution include chloride ions, sulfate ions and vanadium ions; both the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一种全钒液流电池电解液的制备方法 | 18 |
| 2 | 一种钒液流电池电解液的回收再利用装置 | 9 |
| 3 | 一种钒液流电池用复合质子交换膜及其制备方法 | 7 |
| 4 | 一种铁钒电解液及铁钒液流电池 | 2 |
| 5 | 一种用于维护电解液高性能的全钒液流电池电解液配方及工艺 | 2 |
| 6 | 一种全钒液流电池电解液的配方及工艺 | 2 |
| 7 | Vanadium redox flow batteries | 2 |
| 8 | Vanadium redox flow batteries | 2 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Suzhou Rongke Power Co Ltd
Suzhou Rongke Power Co Ltd holds 8 patent records, more than double the next-ranked applicants. Its technology emphasis is concentrated in H01M 8 (fuel cell and flow battery architectures) with an additional record in H01M 10, reflecting a broad cell-system approach to cost reduction. Its momentum trend is classified as a new entrant, consistent with the bulk of its filings appearing in the 2023 surge window.
patent records: 8Shanghai Electric Lingstorage Technology Co Ltd
Shanghai Electric Lingstorage Technology Co Ltd holds 2 patent records, all in H01M 8, and is a new entrant by momentum classification. It files in coordination with its affiliate Shanghai Electric (Anhui) Energy Storage Technology Co Ltd — the only documented co-filing relationship in the corpus — suggesting a deliberate group IP strategy rather than independent innovation tracks.
patent records: 2Frequently asked questions
The evidence corpus contains 18 patent families in scope. This is a small corpus, indicating the specific intersection of VRFB electrolyte formulation and system cost reduction remains a targeted rather than broadly contested space.
Suzhou Rongke Power Co Ltd is the top filer with 8 patent records, more than double any other single applicant. Its filings concentrate in H01M 8 sub-classes covering flow battery cell architectures.
China leads with 9 patent records. Australia, Europe (EPO), India, and the United States each carry 2 records. Canada, Singapore, and WIPO each carry 1 record, indicating selective but real international filing intent by at least some applicants.
One co-filing relationship is documented: Shanghai Electric Lingstorage Technology Co Ltd and Shanghai Electric (Anhui) Energy Storage Technology Co Ltd have co-filed 2 patent records together. No other applicant collaboration pairs appear in the evidence.
The evidence shows 9 patent records filed in 2023, compared to zero in 2019–2021 and 1 in 2022. This surge is consistent with the acceleration of grid-scale VRFB project deployments and intensified commercial focus on electrolyte cost reduction, though a causal explanation is an evidence-backed inference rather than a verified fact.
C25B (electrolytic production of compounds) and C22B (metal extraction and refining) each carry 2 and 1 patent records respectively, representing the lowest-density adjacent IPC branches. Both are technically relevant to electrolyte synthesis and vanadium recovery — key levers in system cost — and remain largely unclaimed relative to the visible H01M filing activity.
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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.
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