Analysis of patents in photocatalytic water and wastewater treatment. Part II – solar energy and nanotechnology

Abstract

The insight provided in the previous chapter, revealed that solar photocatalytic systems as well as the use of nanotechnology in photocatalysis are two of the topics that have received a lot of attention in the patents for photocatalytic water and wastewater treatment. Herein, the most important International Patent Code (IPC) and Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) patent codes and key concepts with regard to these subtopics are presented, and data regarding the activity of various countries, research institutes and companies is offered. The top patent registrants in solar photocatalysis are from China, Japan, and the US, in that order, and the top patent destination countries follow the same order. Several Chinese universities are the top owners of patents in this field, and Jiangsu University emerged as the top owner in this group. The results of text mining showed that titanium dioxide is the most widely used material. As for nanotechnology patents in the field, Chinese patent registrants are leading the field by far. When analyzing the patents on nanotechnology, in contrast to the other topics/subtopics, it was found that research institutions play a significantly greater role than companies.