Archive
SYNTHETIC FUELS. Latest published applications 2015-2017. Gas-to-liquids
Summary
Gas-to-liquid (GTL) technologies convert syngas from hydrocarbon into liquid fuels and other synthetic products. The most widely known GTL technology is the Fischer-Tropsch process, where synthesis gas molecules are combined into long chains of molecules of various compositions. The technology is implemented in special reactors at controlled temperature and pressure, as well as with the obligatory use of catalysts. This technology has a number of obvious advantages for countries that have limited oil reserves but have a surplus of natural gas reserves. GTL technology allows fuel to be obtained which meets high environmental standards with low sulphur and other harmful components content.
However, the capital investment in GTL plants and the subsequent operating costs remain extremely high. Scientific and technical solutions in the field of GTL technologies are aimed primarily at reducing the aforementioned costs, which in the future can significantly increase the competitiveness of this technology. The presented statistical bulletin of patent applications can serve as an additional reference point for tracking the development of this technology.
The present bulletin reviews patent applications granted by patent offices around the globe in 2015-2017 in the field related to gas-to-liquids technology of synthetic fuel production. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. 1289 patent documents from 31 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 391 applicants from 29 countries and 660 subgroups of the International Patent Classification are mentioned.
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 patent applications were USPTO (US), CNIPA (CN) and WIPO.
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 Haldor Topsoe A/S (Denmark), Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. (Netherlands), Linde AG (Germany), Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd., Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd (Japan), INPEX Corporation (Japan), JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation (Japan), Sasol Technology (Pty) Ltd (South Africa) Shell Oil Company (the USA). Data representing the share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of documents 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 patent applications with the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and top prominent single applications.
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 synthetic fuels.
