Wastewater Treatment Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- No single filer dominates. the leader holds 515 records and the top 5 combined account for only 2.7% of the 71,243 records in scope — this is a fragmented field, not a gated one.
- Filing has cooled from its 2019 peak. activity ran from 811 records in 2017 to a peak of 951 in 2019, then fell 32% between 2021 (887) and 2024 (607), the last year with complete publication data.
- Core treatment chemistry still carries the volume. C02F (water & wastewater treatment) appears on 19.2% of all records, more than three times the share of the next-largest class, B01D separation processes at 6.8%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (887 records) with 2024 (607) — 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 71,243 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the wastewater treatment patent record shows
Wastewater treatment spans a wide claim space: reactor design, membrane and separation hardware, oxidation chemistry, biological and microbial routes, and increasingly the sensing and control layer that monitors contaminant concentration, membrane flux and treatment efficiency in real time. The 71,243 records in this dataset were pulled from filings that combine core process terms with water-quality and reactor-performance language, so the set weights toward records that describe measurable treatment outcomes rather than incidental mentions of wastewater.
Filing offices skew heavily toward the United States, with meaningful volume also filed at the EPO, through the PCT route, and in Australia and Canada — a pattern consistent with a technology that is filed nationally first and internationalized selectively rather than filed everywhere by default.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 71,243-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below add up to more than the record total — that is expected, not an error.
A cooling trend after a 2019 peak
Annual filings rose from 811 records in 2017 to a peak of 951 in 2019, then declined to 607 by 2024 — a 32% drop from the 887 recorded in 2021. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publication catches up with filing, so the apparent drop-off in the newest years should not be read as the field slowing further; the 2021-to-2024 comparison is the one to trust.
Core treatment chemistry dominates, control systems remain thin
C02F (water & wastewater treatment) sits on 19.2% of all records, well ahead of B01D separation processes at 6.8% and B01J catalysis at 2.2%. G01N analytical/testing methods (1.7%) and G05B control and regulating systems (0.7%) are present but comparatively thin — a gap that matters given how much of the search string itself is built around measurement terms like contaminant concentration and membrane flux.
Shares are the percentage of the 71,243 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Wastewater Treatment Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about wastewater treatment patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
US11312645B2 — High-concentration organic wastewater treatment reactor
The reactor stacks a lower and upper water distribution system beneath a lower three-phase separator and an upper inclined-plate separator, with a gas-liquid separator at the top of the reactor body. Biogas ascending pipes connect the separators to the gas-liquid separator, and both an influent pipe and an effluent pipe tie into the distribution and separator stages.Filed by Guangxi Bossco Environmental Protection Technology; granted 2022-04-26.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190339688A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for analytics and mainten… | 974 |
| 2 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 860 |
| 3 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 4 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 5 | US20180284758A1 | Methods and systems for industrial internet of things data collection for equipment analysis in an upstream o… | 600 |
| 6 | US6949196B2 | Methods and systems for improved dosing of a chemical treatment, such as chlorine dioxide, into a fluid strea… | 591 |
| 7 | US5972196A | Electrochemical production of ozone and hydrogen peroxide | 588 |
| 8 | US20200225655A1 | Methods, systems, kits and apparatuses for monitoring and managing industrial settings in an industrial inter… | 563 |
| 9 | US20200103894A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for computerized maintena… | 514 |
| 10 | US20190033845A1 | Methods and systems for detection in an industrial internet of things data collection environment with freque… | 412 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to be cited — treat this table as a map of influence within the searched corpus, not a ranking of current technical importance.
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 findings from the ranking and trend data that change where a team should look before drafting new claims.
No gatekeeper controls this field
The leading assignee holds 515 records and the top 5 combined account for just 2.7% of all 71,243 records in scope; the top 10 reach only 4.5%. That is a long tail, not a gated technology — freedom-to-operate risk concentrates in specific claim language, not in a handful of blocking portfolios.
Volume has receded from its 2019 peak
After peaking at 951 records in 2019, annual filing volume fell to 607 by 2024, a 32% decline from the 887 filed in 2021. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025–2026 figures will keep rising as they backfill; the 2021–2024 comparison is the reliable read on direction.
Process chemistry still outweighs sensing and control
C02F alone appears on 19.2% of all 71,243 records, more than the next several classes combined. G05B control/regulating systems sit at just 0.7% and G01N analytical methods at 1.7%, despite the search terms explicitly targeting measurement concepts like contaminant concentration and membrane flux — suggesting the instrumentation layer is comparatively under-claimed relative to the process hardware it monitors.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to wastewater treatment patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity has slowed
The ranked leaders span water-technology specialists, industrial conglomerates and materials companies. Recent-year momentum figures show most of the historically largest filers with little or no activity in the latest year — consistent with the broader cooling trend rather than any single company retreating.
Dedicated water-treatment filers still lead the ranking
Companies built specifically around water and wastewater technology hold the top positions in the ranking, ahead of diversified industrial conglomerates that file wastewater-adjacent claims alongside broader process portfolios.
Diversified filers add depth without dominating
Materials and industrial groups filing membrane, separation and catalysis claims sit through the middle of the ranking, contributing volume without approaching the concentration seen in more gated technology fields.
Momentum has flattened across the largest filers
Several of the historically largest assignees show zero or near-zero filings in the latest year, mirroring the field-wide decline from the 2019 peak rather than signalling any single company's exit — the pattern is consistent with publication lag rather than an abrupt stop in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Evoqua Water Technologies LLC | 2 | 0% |
| Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016 LLC | 1 | -67% |
| Shell Oil Company | 0 | — |
| Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support SAS | 0 | — |
| Toray Industries, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Buckman Laboratories International, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Nalco Company | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing, or identifying where to file next.
Check claim scope before drafting in dense classes
C02F and B01D carry the highest filing density in this dataset. Before drafting new reactor or separation claims, review how existing granted claims in those classes are scoped to avoid overlap.
Explore claim scope in EurekaTrack the thin control-systems branch
G05B and analytical-method classes remain comparatively under-claimed relative to the process hardware they monitor, which is where new filings face the least crowded prior art.
Map white space in EurekaWatch for the 2025–2026 publication catch-up
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent two years in this dataset will keep growing. Re-check momentum figures for major assignees again once that backfill settles.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about wastewater treatment patents
No single company controls the field. The leading assignee in this dataset holds 515 records out of 71,243 in scope, and the top 5 assignees combined account for only 2.7% of all records. That means freedom-to-operate risk is spread across many mid-size portfolios rather than concentrated in one or two gatekeepers, so clearance searches need to look broadly rather than focusing on a short list of dominant filers.
Filing volume peaked in 2019 at 951 records and had declined to 607 by 2024, a 32% drop from the 887 filed in 2021. However, publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the lowest-looking recent years in any dataset are always undercounted and should not be read as the field actively shrinking. The 2021-to-2024 comparison is the most reliable recent signal, and it does show real cooling from the 2019 peak.
Core water and wastewater treatment process claims, classified under IPC subclass C02F, appear on 19.2% of all 71,243 records in this dataset — by far the largest single category. Separation processes such as filtration (B01D) follow at 6.8%, with catalysis, analytical methods, microbial engineering and control systems each present but at much lower shares. This indicates that basic treatment-process hardware is far more heavily claimed than the sensing, control or biological engineering layers around it.
Control and regulating systems (G05B) sit at just 0.7% of records and analytical/testing methods (G01N) at 1.7%, both thin relative to the 19.2% carried by core process chemistry, even though the underlying search terms explicitly target measurement concepts like contaminant concentration and membrane flux. That gap suggests real-time monitoring and automated control loops built around those measurements are comparatively under-claimed and worth a closer freedom-to-operate look before assuming the space is crowded.
US11312645B2 claims a specific reactor architecture for high-concentration organic wastewater: a lower and upper water distribution system feeding a lower three-phase separator and an upper inclined-plate separator, topped by a gas-liquid separator connected via biogas ascending pipes. It was granted to Guangxi Bossco Environmental Protection Technology in April 2022. It blocks that particular stacked-separator reactor configuration, not the broader category of high-concentration organic wastewater treatment, so alternative reactor geometries that avoid the same separator stacking and biogas routing would sit outside its claims.
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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.