Evaluation of technological development of hydrogen fuel cells based on patent analysis

Abstract

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the major factors for the energy transformation to clean and renewable energy sources. In this context, hydrogen fuel cells play an important role in this transition, as they convert the energy stored in hydrogen into electrical energy, acting as a zero-emission technology. Therefore, an analysis of patents is relevant since it is a technology under development. We aim to evaluate the technological development of hydrogen fuel cells through a patent analysis from the Derwent Innovations Index to assess the technological advances between 2001 and 2020. The research strategies returned 22,165 patents and the study shows that: (i) There is a consistent number of patent applications in the period analyzed, which is a reflection of the high rates of research and development for this technology, and the number of patent applications of hydrogen fuel cells had two moments of growth—the first one was between 2001 and 2005, and the second was from 2015 to 2020; (ii) Japan, China, South Korea, and the United States have the highest number of patent applications; (iii) Toyota, Panasonic, Nissan, and Hyundai are the companies with the most patent applications, and the leading technology adopted is the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell; (iv) the main knowledge areas of patents are engineering, electrochemistry, energy fuels, and chemistry; (v) most of the documents are subdivided by the international patent classification into patents for the improvement of technology (H01M8/04), patents for fuel cells using solid polymeric membranes (H01M8/10), and patents for reducing pollution, with a predominance of technologies aligned with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (H01M8/06); and (vi) there is a prominence of deposited patents for polymer electrolyte membrane and solid oxide fuel cells.