Zeolite Catalyst Process Control Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2017 peak. Eight families filed in the peak year against a flat-to-declining midpoint, with the most recent year still undercounted due to publication lag.
- Reactor and cracking control dominates the claim map. B01J and C10G together cover most of the corpus, while separation (B01D) and heterocyclic routes (C07D) sit far behind with only a handful of families each.
- No assignee shows fresh momentum. Every tracked incumbent — from legacy refiners to newer entrants — logged zero filings in the latest year, consistent with a maturing, narrowly held field.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 165 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families that combine zeolite or molecular sieve catalyst claims with explicit reaction, temperature or conversion control language, filtered to the IPC subclasses covering catalytic reactor design and process control instrumentation. It captures the engineering layer sitting on top of catalyst chemistry: how operators hold a fluidized bed, tubular reactor or cracking unit inside a target temperature or conversion window rather than the composition of the zeolite itself.
The corpus spans 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, with 165 published patent families forming the basis of every ranking and chart on this page. Publication lag means recent years are undercounted; treat the last one to two years as a floor, not a ceiling, on real filing activity.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 165-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A peak already behind us
Filings rose to a peak of eight families in 2017, held near six at the 2022 midpoint, and have not returned to peak levels since. Read the final one to two years as partial given the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication, but the multi-year shape points to a field past its filing peak rather than one still accelerating.
Reactor control and refining dominate
B01J (chemical and physical processes, catalysis) covers the large majority of the corpus, with C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) and C10G (hydrocarbon oil refining) close behind — the expected footprint for cracking, reforming and oligomerisation control. Separation processes (B01D), general organic methods (C07B) and inorganic compounds (C01B) each hold a modest secondary share, while heterocyclic chemistry (C07D) and detox applications (A62D) are thinly claimed, single-digit territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 165 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Zeolite Catalyst Process Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about zeolite catalyst process control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art anchoring this field
Oligomerisation Of Olefins With Zeolite Catalyst
The conversion and run length for oligomerisation of olefins over a molecular sieve catalyst in a tubular reactor is improved by controlling the peak temperature to not exceed 50 degrees C. above the temperature of the temperature control fluid exiting the shell side outlet of the reactor. A tubular reactor containing molecular sieve catalyst is provided with a multipoint thermocouple in at least one tube, and optionally with a bottom design adapted for fast unloading of the molecular sieve catalyst from the tubular reactor.Filed by ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc., this record sets a concrete numerical control band (peak temperature within 50°C of the control-fluid exit temperature) tied to a specific instrumentation layout — the kind of narrow, measurable limitation that is straightforward to search around but hard to design past if your process runs the same reaction on similar hardware.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4490565A | Production of phenol | 106 |
| 2 | US4919896A | Multistage catalytic reactor system for production of heavy hydrocarbons | 104 |
| 3 | US3849291A | High temperature catalytic cracking with low coke producing crystalline zeolite catalysts | 95 |
| 4 | US4827069A | Upgrading light olefin fuel gas and catalytic reformate in a turbulent fluidized bed catalyst reactor | 88 |
| 5 | US3926778A | Method and system for controlling the activity of a crystalline zeolite cracking catalyst | 88 |
| 6 | US4071573A | Prolonging zeolite catalyst life in methanol conversion to gasoline by disposing of exothermic reaction heat | 80 |
| 7 | US4778665A | Abatement of NOx in exhaust gases | 77 |
| 8 | US4746762A | Upgrading light olefins in a turbulent fluidized catalyst bed reactor | 76 |
| 9 | US6319484B1 | Compositions for abatement of volatile organic compounds and apparatus and methods using the same | 71 |
| 10 | US4238631A | Fluid zeolite catalyzed conversion of alcohols and oxygenated derivatives to hydrocarbons by controlling exot… | 71 |
Citation counts reward older filings simply for having been in circulation longer; treat this table as a map of foundational influence, not of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns emerge once filing trend, IPC spread and citation data are read together.
Past its peak, not accelerating
The peak year of 8 families in 2017 has not been matched since, and the midpoint year of 6 in 2022 confirms a flat-to-declining trajectory rather than a temporary dip. Even allowing for publication lag on the last one to two years, this is not a field with rising filing pressure.
Reactor engineering, not catalyst chemistry, is the crowded layer
Nearly the entire corpus sits in B01J (catalytic process and reactor design), with C07C and C10G close behind as the refining and hydrocarbon-conversion overlay. That concentration means process-control claims on standard fluidized-bed and tubular reactor formats face dense prior art; the openings are more likely in adjacent, thinly filed subclasses.
The oldest control patents still set the reference points
The most-cited records in this corpus date from the 1970s–1980s and cover cracking-catalyst activity control and multistage reactor systems. Their citation counts reflect decades in circulation more than continued relevance, but freedom-to-operate work on reactor control still has to clear them.
No incumbent is currently pushing new filings
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum — spanning legacy refiners and newer specialty entrants — shows zero filings in the latest year. Combined with the flat trend line, this points to a field where existing claims are being held rather than extended.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to zeolite catalyst process control, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
165 families sit across a mix of major refiners, catalyst licensors and research institutes, with a small number of co-filing relationships linking specific inventors and institutions to the largest holders.
Collaboration is narrow and inventor-specific
The strongest co-assignee links pair a major catalyst licensor with named individual inventors, and a national oil company with a research institute, rather than showing broad cross-industry partnership. This is a field of largely independent filers.
Filing is concentrated in the US and Europe
The United States accounts for the largest single share of receiving-office filings, with Europe and PCT applications forming the next tier and China, Australia and Finland each holding smaller shares. Any freedom-to-operate check should prioritise US and EPO records first.
Incumbents are holding position, not expanding it
None of the tracked assignees — including the largest historical filers — added a new family in the latest year. That is consistent with a field where core control methods were staked out earlier and are now being maintained rather than extended.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mobil Oil Corporation | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc. | 0 | — |
| Novomer, Inc. | 0 | — |
| UOP LLC (Universal Oil Products) | 0 | — |
| Exelus, Inc. | 0 | — |
| L'Air Liquide, Société Anonyme pour l'Étude et l'Exploitation des Procédés Georges Claude | 0 | — |
| The University of Akron | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | — |
Turning this landscape into a filing decision
The charts above show where claim density sits; the next step is checking a specific process design or control method against that density.
Run a freedom-to-operate check
Search the most-cited control patents and the B01J-heavy assignee portfolios against your specific reactor and control-loop design before drafting claims.
Search prior art in EurekaExplore the under-claimed sub-areas
The gate chips above point to IPC pockets with thin filing density; validate them against your own process before committing R&D time.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
In this landscape, a record has to combine zeolite, molecular sieve or zeolite-catalyst language with explicit process-control terminology such as reaction control, advanced process control, temperature control or conversion control. It is further filtered to IPC subclasses covering catalytic reactor design (B01J8, B01J19) and process control systems (G05B13). This excludes patents that only describe zeolite composition or synthesis without a control claim, and excludes general process-control patents that do not mention a zeolite or molecular sieve catalyst.
The filing trend peaked at 8 families in 2017 and has not returned to that level, sitting around 6 at the 2022 midpoint and trending lower toward the most recent years. This pattern is consistent with a technology area where the core control methods for fluidized-bed and tubular reactor systems were staked out earlier, leaving less unclaimed ground for new filings. Recent years should still be read with some caution because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the very last year or two understates true activity.
The corpus includes major refiners, catalyst licensors and research institutes, with the strongest co-filing relationships linking a major catalyst licensor to named inventors and a national oil company to a research institute. None of the tracked assignees, including the largest historical filers, added a new family in the most recent year, indicating the leadership position is currently held rather than actively contested. Exact rankings are shown in the assignee table elsewhere on this page rather than repeated here.
This ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc. filing claims a specific method of controlling peak temperature in a tubular reactor running olefin oligomerisation over a molecular sieve catalyst, limiting peak temperature to no more than 50 degrees C above the temperature control fluid's shell-side outlet, together with a multipoint thermocouple arrangement. It blocks reactor designs and control routines that fall inside that specific numeric temperature band and instrumentation layout for this reaction type. It does not block oligomerisation processes that use a different control variable, a different reactor geometry, or a temperature differential outside that band, which is where design-around work should focus.
The IPC composition shows heavy concentration in B01J, C07C and C10G, covering standard catalytic reactor and refining control, while subclasses like C07D (heterocyclic compounds) and A62D (chemical protection and detox) each carry only a handful of families. That thin coverage suggests under-claimed territory in heterocyclic conversion control, detox-linked process control, and tighter coupling between separation-stage sensing and reactor conversion control. Any of these should be checked against a live prior-art search before committing to a specific claim scope, since low volume in this dataset is a starting signal, not proof of clearance.
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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.