High-Pressure Water Electrolysis Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- 32.6% concentration at the top. The five most active filers account for 56 of the 172 records in scope, but the remaining filers form a long tail rather than a second tier.
- Filings grew 57% from 2021 to 2024. Activity moved from 7 records in 2021 to 11 in 2024, with 2023 the peak year so far at 13 — the strongest three-year run in the dataset.
- C25B carries the field, H01M and C07C trail. 51.7% of records sit in electrolytic production of compounds, while battery/fuel-cell (20.3%) and carbocyclic-compound (17.4%) classes show where electrolysis work overlaps adjacent hardware.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (11) — 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 172 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
High-pressure water electrolysis compresses the hydrogen production step at the point of generation, avoiding a separate mechanical compression stage downstream. The 172 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off and cluster around electrolyzer cell design, pressurized stack architecture and the balance-of-plant needed to manage gas separation and storage at elevated pressure. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent filing years understate real activity.
The dataset draws on the receiving offices where these applications were filed, the IPC subclasses they were assigned, and the citation network built between records — together they show where claim density is already high and where a new filer would face a comparatively open field.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 172 records: how filing activity moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim volume.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 13 in 2023, with the 2021-to-2024 span showing a 57% increase from 7 to 11 records. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as later-filed applications publish, including a drop to 0 for the most recent year shown — treat that decline as a publication-lag artifact, not a real slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C25B (electrolytic production of compounds) covers 51.7% of the 172 records, confirming this is fundamentally an electrolytic-process field rather than a storage or catalysis one. H01M (20.3%) and F17C (7.6%) mark the points where electrolyzer design intersects battery/fuel-cell integration and pressure-vessel engineering — the two adjacent disciplines a high-pressure electrolyzer filer has to clear in addition to the core electrochemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 172 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Process and system including pressure retarded osmosis membrane for indirect seawater electrolysis
A process and system for indirect seawater, and other contaminated waters, electrolysis are provided. The system includes a pressure retarded osmosis unit including a semipermeable membrane, and a high pressure electrolyzer unit including an anode and a cathode, with an osmotic agent solution being circulated at high pressure between the draw side of the pressure retarded osmosis unit and the electrolyzer unit. The osmotic agent solution is diluted in the PRO unit as molecular water is drawn into it from the feed solution side through the semipermeable PRO membrane, and it is concentrated in the electrolyzer unit as molecular water is removed by electrolysis.Filed by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, published 2023-12-14 as US20230399245A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050008904A1 | Regenerative fuel cell technology | 136 |
| 2 | US20080047502A1 | Hybrid Cycle Electrolysis Power System with Hydrogen & Oxygen Energy Storage | 135 |
| 3 | US20100276299A1 | High pressure electrolysis cell for hydrogen production from water | 87 |
| 4 | US20060065302A1 | System and sub-systems for production and use of hydrogen | 78 |
| 5 | US20220041299A1 | Unmanned vehicle | 72 |
| 6 | US6833206B2 | Auxiliary power supply for a vehicle with a combustion engine and method for operating same | 58 |
| 7 | WO2015055349A1 | Integrated process/plant for storage of co2 by conversion to synthetic natural gas | 49 |
| 8 | US20050178432A1 | Hydrogen Storage System and Method of Operation Thereof | 49 |
| 9 | US20020155330A1 | Fuel cell system and hydrogen-generating system therefor | 45 |
| 10 | US20060048920A1 | Energy reclaiming process | 43 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
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 that shape where a new application would land relative to existing claims.
The top is thin, not deep
The leader holds 17 records and fifth place holds 8 — a real gap, but not a moat. With the top 5 combined at only 32.6% of all 172 records, no single filer controls the field the way concentration figures above 50% would suggest for a top-5 group.
Activity is still building, not cooling
Filings rose from 7 in 2021 to 11 in 2024, the last year that can be read as complete given publication lag. That growth, against a peak of 13 in 2023, points to a field still attracting new applications rather than one that has plateaued.
The core process class is crowded; adjacent classes are lighter
Over half of records sit in C25B (electrolytic production of compounds), the densest single subclass. F17C (pressure vessels, 7.6%) and C02F (water treatment, 6.4%) carry far fewer records, marking where pressure-handling and feedwater-quality claims are comparatively under-filed relative to the core electrochemistry.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to water electrolysis — high-pressure water electrolysis patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape
81 companies make up the ranked list returned for this search — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the full ranking the dataset produces for records in scope.
A single leader, then a fast taper
The leading assignee holds 17 records against 8 at fifth place and 6 at tenth — a steep drop-off in the first ten positions rather than a plateau of near-equal competitors.
Most filers appear once or twice
With 81 companies across 172 records and only 90 records held by the top 10, the bulk of assignees hold a handful of filings each — typical of a field still in an exploratory, pre-consolidation phase.
Momentum data is thinned by publication lag
Several of the most active historical filers show zero records in the latest tracked year. Given the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication, this reflects incomplete recent data rather than an actual pullback by these assignees.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| VITO NV | 0 | — |
| SYNFUELS INTERNATIONAL INC | 0 | — |
| Silicon Fire AG | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| Proton Energy Systems, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Woodside Energy Technologies Pty Ltd | 0 | — |
| H3 DYNAMICS HLDG PTE LTD | 0 | — |
| Hydrogen Energy Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with room at the edges of the core process class. The next step is testing a specific claim direction against this prior art rather than reading the landscape as a final answer.
Stress-test a claim direction
Run a candidate claim for a pressure vessel, separator or feedwater sub-system against the C25B-heavy prior art to see how much of it is actually occupied.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack the leader's recent filings
Follow the leading assignee's newest applications as they publish to see whether the 2023 peak represents a plateau or the start of a new filing wave.
Set up monitoring in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
It is moderately concentrated but not dominated by one player. The five most active assignees together hold 56 of the 172 records in scope, which is 32.6% of the field, while the leader alone accounts for 17 records. The top 10 combined reach 52.3% of all records, meaning roughly half of the field's activity is spread across 81 ranked companies, most holding only a handful of filings each.
The trend from 2021 to 2024 shows growth, not slowdown: filings rose from 7 to 11 records over that span, a 57% increase, with 2023 as the peak year so far at 13. Later years in the raw trend appear to drop off sharply, but that is a publication-lag effect — applications filed in 2025 and 2026 have not all published yet, so those years understate real activity and should not be read as a decline.
C25B, the IPC subclass for electrolytic production of compounds, covers 51.7% of the 172 records and is clearly the core claim territory. H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) follows at 20.3% and C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) at 17.4%, showing where electrolysis work overlaps energy-storage and chemical-synthesis claims. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be treated as mutually exclusive slices of the field.
Relative to the 51.7% share held by the core C25B process class, sub-areas like pressure vessel and gas storage design (F17C, 7.6%) and water treatment integration (C02F, 6.4%) carry far fewer filings. Specific branches such as pressure-retarded osmosis feed integration for seawater electrolysis, high-pressure gas-liquid separator design, and feedwater pretreatment show comparatively light claim density and are worth checking directly before drafting a new application in those directions.
The United States leads with 42 filings, followed by the European Patent Office at 36 and the WIPO PCT route at 32, which together cover most of the international filing activity captured in this dataset. Australia (13), India (9) and Canada (8) follow at meaningfully lower volumes, indicating that protection strategy in this field is centred on the US, Europe and PCT filings before regional extension.
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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.