Archive
BIOENERGY. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Biogas
Summary
The production of biogas is an important field of renewable energy production which enables energy and heat production in rural areas. Often special energy crops, biomass and agricultural waste, food and brewery waste as well as sewage water are used as feedstock. The availability of feedstock determines the choice of technology. For example, in South-Asian countries the most important feedstock for biogas production is palm oil, in China and India animal manure is used and in Germany biomass and agricultural waste are fermented. This requires the implementation of various technologies. More than 70% of net biogas production is concentrated in Europe. Germany is the undisputed leader in biogas fuel production where there are about 10,000 biogas plants. Among the most common shortcomings of the current systems, low efficiency of the main processes, low efficiency of product treatment as well as negative environmental impact are frequently mentioned. The patents presented in this bulletin try to overcome some of these problems.
A selection of patents related to biogas production and published by patent offices around the globe in 2016-2018 is provided for review in the present bulletin. General research methodology can be found at the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 917 patents, prepared by applicants from 38 countries and registered in 33 patent offices. The patent documents mention 704 applicants and 812 IPC subgroups.
Key Highlights
The bulletin contains statistical data on the distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The top three patent offices that granted the largest number of patents were CNIPA (CN), USPTO (US) and EPO.
Based on the analysis of each of the patents, internal characteristics of unified indicators (technical problems, types of inventive solutions, belonging to one or other technological segment) were found, which allowed specific features for each of the indicators for the entire array of documents to be defined, for instance, to define the leading problems or technical solution types that were disclosed by the inventors the most. Document lists are provided for the ten most popular groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators, including their ID numbers and applicant names.
A list of the top 10 applicants by the number of patents includes Osaka Gas Corporation (JP), Pan Lei (CN), Evonik Degussa GmbH (DE), Evonik Fibres Gmbh (AT), Jiaxing Vocational Technical College (CN), Nalco Company (US), Air Liquide (FR), Biogas Science Research Institute (CN), Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) (KR), BASF, SE (DE). Data representing the share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of patents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators is provided in the form of tables and diagrams for them.
The top prominent documents section includes three lists of the top 10 patents having the highest bibliographical rating, the largest number of IPC sections, and the shortest patent pending time.
The conclusive part of the bulletin represents the lists of all of the documents reviewed, arranged by the top 10 groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators and by patent offices with the indication of the ID numbers of the granted patents.
Who needs this bulletin?
The data provided in the proposed bulletin is a timely reflection of the transformations that take place in the intellectual property sector of the industrial direction concerned. A thoroughly edited selection of patent documents can become a good complement to your library of available technical solutions. The bulletin is targeted at inventors, engineers, researchers, managers and business administrators involved in the development of biogas production technologies.
