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SYNTHETIC FUELS. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Syngas production cycle
Summary
Syngas production is one of the key modern technological processes, and has been widely developed in many industries. Syngas, as a mixture of gaseous H2 and CO, has a variety of applications. On one hand, it is used directly as a highly efficient fuel, on the other hand, hydrogen, that can be produced from syngas can be used for various technological needs. Syngas is used as a valuable intermediate raw material for the production of high-purity liquid fuels through Fischer-Tropsch processes and other chemical products, primarily methanol and mineral fertilizers. Almost any hydrocarbon feedstock, including natural gas, oil, coal or biomass, is suitable for syngas production. In the energy sector, in the vast majority of cases, syngas is produced through the steam conversion of methane with the final extraction of hydrogen; for example, for the needs of oil refining or for its delivery to gas stations. Methods for the gasification of coal, biomass, or municipal waste have also gained some development. The proposed Patent Statistical Bulletin contains recent patents that reflect engineering solutions for various aspects of syngas production.
A selection of patents related to syngas production cycle 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 Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 1611 patents, prepared by applicants from 30 countries and registered in 24 patent offices. The patent documents mention 784 applicants and 1096 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 two patent offices that granted the largest number of patents were CNIPA (CN) and USPTO (US).
For each of the patent documents selected for the examination in the present bulletin the characteristics of unified indicators were preliminary defined, they include: technical problems, types of inventive solutions employed, belonging to one or other technological segment. This allows the internal content for each of the indicators in the aggregate array of documents to be visualized, for instance, to define the sequence and proportional correlation of technical problems the inventive solutions disclosed in the texts aim to solve. A list of the top 10 groups consisting of patent documents with identical unified indicators contains ID numbers and applicant names of respective documents; the groups are sorted by the number of patent documents.
A list of the top 10 applicants by the number of patent documents includes General Electric (USA), Haldor Topsoe A/S (Denmark), Wuhan Kaidi Engineering Technology Research General Institute Co., Ltd. (China), Air Liquide (France), Ineos Bio SA (CH), Linde AG (Germany), Praxair Technology Inc. (USA), BASF, SE (Germany), Lummus Technologies Inc. (US), Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd (JP).
Data representing the share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of patent by problems, IPC sections, patent offices is provided in the form of tables and diagrams for them.
The prominent documents pages contain the top 10 patents with the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage 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 proposed patent statistics bulletin allows the existing trends in the intellectual property market of the specified industrial sector to be timely traced, as well as the possibility of acquiring a carefully selected list of patent documents fully corresponding to the specified subject. The bulletin can be useful for inventors, engineers, scientific workers, and business representatives, who are focused on the development of syngas production technologies.
