Archive
SYNTHETIC FUELS. Latest published applications 2017-2019. Gas-to-liquids
Summary
Technology for the production of synthetic fuels from natural gas using Fischer-Tropsch technology has generated interest from both researchers and manufacturing companies. This process allows domestic demand for liquid fuels to be met when other suitable resources are available, including coal or gas. For example, in Qatar, which has large natural gas reserves, the GTL factories of Pearl and Oryx produce more than 250,000 barrels of liquid fuel per day. Nevertheless, this technology has not yet seen large-scale application in the world.There is great potential in the refinement and mass application of block microchannel GTL plants in order to utilize associated gas products directly at oil fields. The importance of further developments in this area is dictated by large volumes of associated petroleum gas flaring, with associated carbon dioxide emissions. Engineering developments in the field of GTL technologies are aimed primarily at reducing capital costs, optimizing processes by increasing the efficiency and reliability of catalysts, and standardizing the equipment used.
The present bulletin reviews patent applications granted by patent offices around the globe in 2017-2019 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. 907 patent documents from 26 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 266 applicants from 23 countries and 587 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 Air Liquide (France), Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. (the Netherlands), Haldor Topsoe A/S (Denmark), China Petroleum & Chemical Company (China), L'air Liquide, Société Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Procédés Georges Claude (France), Casale S.A. (Switzerland), Sabic Global Technologies B.V (the Netherlands), Shell Oil Company (USA), Dow Global Technologies, LLC (USA), and Praxair Technology Inc. (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.
