Archive
SYNTHETIC FUELS. Latest published applications 2017-2019. Methanol & products
Summary
Methanol, consisting of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, is a colourless, poisonous liquid that is highly soluble in water. Most of methanol is obtained from syngas, which in turn is produced from natural gas through steam reforming. Methanol is the most important raw material for the chemical industry, where it is primarily consumed. However, according to Methanex Corporation estimates, a significant proportion of methanol (over 40%) is consumed in the energy sector. Methanol is used as a fuel additive (gasoline blending), or is used for additional processing to produce various types of fuel, including dimethyl ether, biodiesel, synthetic gasoline. Options of methanol production by the synthesis of carbon dioxide and hydrogen obtained by electrolysis (converting CO2 into renewable methanol) are of undoubted interest. For example, this technology is implemented by Carbon Recycling International in Iceland. The largest plants for the production of various fuels from methanol, in particular, are Jiutai Group Erdos, Inner Mongolia, China (dimethyl ether), Methanex Motunui Taranaki MTG Plant, New Zealand (gasoline), Enerkem Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Methanex (methanol, ethanol).
The present bulletin reviews patent applications granted by patent offices around the globe in 2017-2019 in the field related to methanol and products of synthetic fuels. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. 446 patent documents from 19 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 179 applicants from 18 countries and 374 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 CNIPA (CN), WIPO 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 Haldor Topsoe A/S (Denmark), Johnson Mattey Davy Technologies Limited (Great Britain), ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (USA), Casale S.A. (Switzerland), Sabic Global Technologies B.V (Netherlands), Sinopec Engineering Incorporation (China), Air Liquide (France), Siemens AG (Germany), 8 RIVERS CAPITAL, LLC (USA), Avocet Infinite PLC (Great Britain). 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.
