The EU leads the world in patents filed for hydrogen technologies, accounting for 28pc of all international patent families for hydrogen published over the past decade, according to a recent report published by the IEA and the European Patent Office.

Japan follows closely with 24pc and has seen the rate of new patents field grow faster than Europe, at 6.2pc compared with 4.5pc.

While the US published 20pc of hydrogen patents in the same period, it was the only major region where the number of patents filed fell over the decade, with a dropoff from 2014.

24pc – International patents for hydrogen in Japan

The report notes a distinction between patents for the current, emissions-intensive hydrogen industry and patents for hydrogen production, storage, transportation and end-use motivated by climate. Patents for hydrogen production from fossil fuels peaked in 2007, with only limited patents since published for decarbonising grey hydrogen production.

Meanwhile, climate-motivated technologies made up 80pc of patents related to hydrogen production in 2020, amid a major rise in innovation for electrolysis.

Japan has led the charge on electrolyser patents, publishing 28pc of all international patent families in this field. The EU follows with 24pc and the US with 13pc, although it has led on patents for biomass and waste-to-hydrogen. Europe, the US and China—while falling behind Japan in terms of patents—are pulling ahead in terms of deployment, dominating the planned 47GW of manufacturing capacity by 2025.

End-use

The number of patents for the use of hydrogen in ammonia and methanol production rose in the past decade. This trend reflects “both the efforts to reduce the significant climate impact of their production processes and the recent interest in these molecules as hydrogen-based fuels for the power and transport sectors”, according to the report.

However, while patents for fuel-cell transportation and short-distance aviation saw growth in the past decade, the number of patents for internal combustion engines and turbines run on hydrogen, ammonia or methanol have not yet risen despite growing policy momentum.

Likewise, the global level of patenting for technologies enabling hydrogen use in steelmaking, power generation and buildings was lower in 2020 than in the 2000–15 period, with new patents for the latter two sectors in decline. Hydrogen-related steelmaking has seen patents rebound from a period of decline over 2014–17, with hydrogen direct-reduced iron emerging as a main focus area for investment in R&D and demonstration projects.

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Author: Polly Martin