Zeolite Catalyst Durability Patents: Who Leads, Filing Trends 2026
- Filings peaked in 2019 at 257 and have declined since, with the 2022 midpoint at 149 — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- B01J dominates at 4,110 of 4,129 records, but C10G refining overlap (1,393) and F01N exhaust treatment (330) mark where durability claims cross into adjacent, less-crowded IPC territory.
- One Chinese state group anchors ten of the co-assignee pairs, with its strongest internal pairing appearing in 316 shared filings — a sign of centralized R&D across research-institute subsidiaries rather than open competition.
Filing growth compares 2021 (158 records) with 2024 (109) — 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 4,129 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Zeolite catalyst environmental durability spans the chemistry and process engineering that keeps a zeolite or molecular sieve active under real operating stress: hydrothermal stability under steam, coking resistance under hydrocarbon fouling, and general deactivation resistance over catalyst lifetime. These are the properties that decide whether a catalyst survives a refinery unit or an exhaust stream for years rather than months.
The corpus pulled here covers 4,129 published patent families filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, indexed under the core catalysis classification B01J together with its process (B01J37) and regeneration/stabilisation (B01J38) sub-groups, and filtered to documents whose title, abstract or claims explicitly reference stability or resistance under thermal, steam or coking stress.
Filing trends and technology composition
Publication counts by year and by IPC subclass, drawn directly from the 4,129-family corpus. Recent-year counts are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
A peak behind us, not ahead
Filings rose to a peak of 257 in 2019, sat near 149 at the 2022 midpoint, and have fallen toward single digits by 2026 — though the final two years are still filling in as later publications land. The shape reads as a technology that was actively claimed through the late 2010s and has since settled into incremental filing rather than a land grab.
Durability claims lean toward refining and exhaust
Nearly all records sit inside B01J's catalysis core, but the second tier is informative: C10G (hydrocarbon refining) and C01B (inorganic compounds) each carry over 1,300 records, B01D (separation) over 1,100, and F01N (exhaust treatment) 330 — showing durability claims cluster where zeolites do real industrial work, not just in synthesis chemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,129 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Zeolite Catalyst Environmental Durability with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about zeolite catalyst environmental durability and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents anchoring this field
CA2779312A1 — Double-component modified molecular sieve with improved hydrothermal stability
A method for producing a double-component modified molecular sieve: molecular sieve is reacted in an aqueous phosphorus solution under controlled pH, temperature and pressure, then filtered, dried and calcined to yield a phosphorus-modified sieve; that intermediate is then reacted with silver ions in the dark under mild conditions, then filtered, dried and calcined again to produce the final double-component modified sieve.Filed by PetroChina Company Limited, dated 2011-05-05 — a two-stage phosphorus-then-silver modification route aimed squarely at hydrothermal stability.
View full filing| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US3702886A | Crystalline zeolite ZSM-5 and method of preparing the same | 3,483 |
| 2 | WO2008132452A2 | Transition metal/zeolite SCR catalysts | 630 |
| 3 | US5232675A | Rare earth-containing high-silica zeolite having penta-sil type structure and process for the same | 548 |
| 4 | US4503023A | Silicon substituted zeolite compositions and process for preparing same | 529 |
| 5 | US5516497A | Staged metal-promoted zeolite catalysts and method for catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides using the same | 473 |
| 6 | WO2008106519A1 | Copper CHA zeolite catalysts | 411 |
| 7 | US4493902A | Fluid catalytic cracking catalyst comprising microspheres containing more than about 40 percent by weight Y-f… | 383 |
| 8 | US3140249A | Catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons with a crystalline zeolite catalyst composite | 375 |
| 9 | US4897178A | Hydrocracking catalyst and hydrocracking process | 331 |
| 10 | US4297328A | Three-way catalytic process for gaseous streams | 299 |
Citation counts reward age inside a searched corpus — treat this table as a map of influence on later filings, not a ranking 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 say about where this field stands
Three readings of the same corpus: the trend line, the classification spread, and the citation record. Each points to a field that was built out fast and is now being defended rather than expanded.
Past the growth phase
The climb from 197 filings in 2017 to a 257 peak in 2019, followed by a decline through the 149 midpoint in 2022 down toward the low double digits by 2026, describes a technology that front-loaded its claims. New entrants now face dense prior art rather than open ground.
Durability is a refining and separation problem too
Beyond the B01J catalysis core, the next three subclasses by volume — hydrocarbon refining, inorganic compounds, and separation processes — each carry over a thousand records. That spread shows durability claims are written where the catalyst actually operates: in cracking units, gas streams and filtration trains.
One foundational filing still shapes the field
The most-cited record in the corpus is the original ZSM-5 zeolite patent, cited well over five times more than the next entry. Its dominance is a citation-graph artefact of age and foundational status, not evidence that ZSM-5 chemistry itself is the active battleground today.
Centralized filing inside one group
Of only ten identified co-assignee pairs, the strongest links a parent group to its own research-institute subsidiary at 316 shared filings — an order of magnitude above the next pairs. This points to internal R&D-to-corporate filing structure rather than cross-company joint development.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to zeolite catalyst environmental durability, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and who has slowed down
Recent-year momentum diverges sharply: one assignee is still filing and growing, while several long-standing names have gone quiet in the latest year — a pattern worth checking before assuming any single company still leads.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) (Sinopec)
Filed 3 records in the latest year, up 50% year-on-year — modest in absolute terms but the only tracked assignee still showing positive momentum. Combined with its dominant co-assignee pairing internally, Sinopec's research network remains the most active filer of record in this space.
庄信万丰股份有限公司 (Johnson Matthey)
Filed 1 record in the latest year, down 67% year-on-year. Still active but clearly past its filing peak in this specific durability niche.
BASF, ExxonMobil and Mobil entities
Several historically significant assignees — including a -100% YoY drop for one major — show zero filings in the latest tracked year. That does not mean exit; publication lag of roughly 18 months means recent filings from these groups may simply not have published yet.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) | 3 | +50% |
| Johnson Matthey PLC (UK) | 1 | -67% |
| Sinopec Research Institute of Petroleum Processing | 0 | — |
| BASF Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Mobil Oil Corporation | 0 | — |
| W. R. Grace & Co. | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | -100% |
| ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The corpus data answers what has already been claimed. Two things it cannot answer on its own: whether a specific process route is still open, and how a competitor's granted claims actually constrain a new filing.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on a specific route
Cross-check any planned modification chemistry — phosphorus, silver, rare-earth or steam-treatment based — against the granted claims of the most-cited records before committing lab time.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack the assignees still filing
Momentum has narrowed to a small set of active filers; monitoring their newest applications is more informative now than scanning the full historical corpus.
Set up assignee tracking in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
In this landscape it means a patent family classified under core catalysis IPC codes (B01J29, B01J37, B01J38) whose title, abstract or claims specifically address hydrothermal stability, coking resistance, steam stability or deactivation resistance. It excludes general zeolite synthesis patents that make no durability claim. The distinction matters because a huge amount of zeolite literature covers synthesis or shape-selectivity without ever addressing how the catalyst holds up under steam or coke fouling over its working life.
The data shows filings rising from 197 in 2017 to a peak of 257 in 2019, then falling toward a 2022 midpoint of 149 and further down by 2026. This pattern is typical of a technology area that saw a concentrated wave of claiming activity once core modification routes — phosphorus treatment, rare-earth doping, dealumination control — were identified, after which filers shifted to narrower refinements rather than broad new claims. Note that the most recent one to two years are always undercounted in any patent dataset because of publication lag, so the true 2025–2026 filing rate is higher than currently shown.
Sinopec and its internal research institutes form the most tightly linked filing network in this corpus, with one internal co-assignee pairing alone accounting for 316 shared filings — far ahead of any other pair. Western majors including Johnson Matthey, BASF, ExxonMobil and Mobil-linked entities appear prominently in the historical record but show reduced or zero filings in the latest tracked year. A practitioner should treat the Sinopec network as the most consistently active filer today, while checking any Western incumbent's recent applications directly since publication lag can mask genuine activity.
The search terms bundle hydrothermal stability, steam stability, coking resistance and deactivation resistance together, and the classification data does not split cleanly between them — but the strong overlap with C10G (hydrocarbon refining, 1,393 records) suggests coking-related durability claims are heavily represented, since coking is primarily a refining-process failure mode. Hydrothermal stability claims, by contrast, spread more evenly across B01J, C01B and F01N, reflecting use in steam-exposed environments from refining to exhaust treatment.
The thinner sub-areas relative to the dense B01J core include phosphorus-silver dual-modification chemistry, low-temperature deactivation-resistant SCR sieve formulations, precise post-steaming dealumination control, and coke-selective pore-mouth modification techniques. F01N-classified exhaust-specific stabilisation is also comparatively under-filed at 330 records against the 4,110 in the catalysis core. These branches sit adjacent to heavily claimed territory rather than being entirely novel, so a new filing there should be checked closely against the nearest granted claims before assuming it is clear.
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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.