For a decade, carbon capture has been narrated as a chemistry race. Whoever finds the sorbent that grabs CO₂ from thin air at the lowest energy cost wins. Climeworks, Heirloom, and Carbon Engineering dominate the sector's news cycle. The patent filings since 2024 tell a different story: the carbon capture industry is increasingly being built by car parts companies.
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage at an industrial scale is one of four technological trends with very high impact in the next 4-6 years, as mapped on the ITONICS energy industry trend radar. ITONICS AI, Prism, identified, from its integration with lens.org, a relevant corpus of 1,507 unique patent families covering CO₂ capture, filed with a priority date after January 01, 2024. Three key findings stand out:
- The largest single patent position in global CO₂ capture belongs to an automotive supplier, Bosch. Forty-seven families. Climeworks, the most heavily funded direct air capture company in the world, has three. Automotive OEMs, automotive tier-1 suppliers, and ceramic-substrate makers together account for 154 of the 1,507 families — 10 percent of everything filed.
- The technical problem has moved. The filings are not about better sorbents. They are about valves, sluices, thermal management, extruded ceramic monoliths, cassette logistics, and gas conditioning. The binding constraint has shifted from chemistry to manufacturing. The future leaders in carbon capture are those mastering scalability fastest.
- One sector is missing entirely. Across 1,507 families, exactly one invention addresses capturing CO₂ from a cement plant. Not one of the world's largest cement producers appears. Neither do their capture technology suppliers. Their position seems to be buy instead of make.
| Technology | Families | Who is building it | Why it matters |
| 1. Modular DAC plant engineering | 154 | Bosch, Honda, Volkswagen, Toyota, Denso | Moves DAC from a materials-science timeline to a manufacturing learning curve |
| 2. Structured ceramic contactors | 21 | NGK Insulators, Corning, Cormetech | Puts capture sorbent on the catalytic converter production base |
| 3. Sorbent as a serviced consumable | 30 | Removr, GE Vernova, Mosaic Materials, Carbyon, Volkswagen | Shifts sorbent from capital risk to service contract |
| 4. CO₂ conditioning and purity | 48 | UOP (Honeywell), Nuovo Pignone (Baker Hughes), Bosch | The undisclosed cost between capture and pipeline |
| 5. Distributed DAC in building air systems | 24 | Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Electric, Bosch | Removes land, permitting, and grid connection from the siting problem |
| 6. Electrochemical and pH-swing capture | 44 | Eleryc, Phlair, Beyond Captur, GS Yuasa, Denso, Bosch | Replaces heat with electricity, making capture dispatchable |
| 7. High-temperature ceramic membranes | 7 | Valero | Deletes the flue-gas cooling train that dominates retrofit cost |
| 8. Capture wired into steel byproduct streams | 55 | POSCO, JFE Engineering, Hyundai Steel, Nippon Steel | Capture pays for itself when it shares equipment with a process already running |
| 9. Triazolate MOF sorbents for point-source capture | 14 | Svante, GE Infrastructure | Sorbent maker plus equipment OEM is the pattern that precedes deployment |
Exhibit 1: Carbon capture technologies to watch in 2027
6 carbon capture technologies to watch in 2027
These six carry the most weight in the corpus: each is backed either by multiple independent assignees converging on one approach, or by a single coherent programme of filings from one organisation. They also point in one direction. None is a new way to bind CO₂ to a molecule; all six are about manufacturing, containing, integrating or powering capture hardware.
1. Modular DAC plant engineering
What it is. Modular direct air capture (DAC) plant engineering means scaling DAC by manufacturing standardised hardware components rather than engineering a bespoke chemical plant at every site.
The engineering being patented is mechanical: valves that shut off bulk-solids flow in a sluice arrangement (Bosch, DE 102025106159 A1), sluices that feed granular medium into a process chamber (Bosch, DE 102025101945 A1), temperature-control arrangements for sorbent beds (Volkswagen, DE 102024115024 A1). Where chemistry appears, it appears as a coating problem, like PTFE on zeolites to improve CO₂ selectivity against water (Volkswagen, DE 102024123191 A1).
What changes. DAC cost has been treated as a sorbent problem: better chemistry, lower regeneration energy. These filings instead put the binding constraint on moving solids, moving heat, and making parts repeatably. That shifts the cost curve from a materials-science timeline, where progress comes from discovery and resists compression, to a manufacturing scale-up timeline. This is the curve that took lithium-ion cells from roughly $1,200 to under $100 per kilowatt-hour and solar modules down around 90% in a decade.
Who is building it. Automotive OEMs, automotive tier-1 suppliers, and ceramic-substrate makers account for 154 of 1,507 families. This is one in ten of everything filed, and the largest single bloc in the corpus. Bosch leads with 47, ahead of Honda 22, Volkswagen 12, Corning 11, NGK Insulators 10, Toyota 10, Futaba Industrial 8 and Denso 5, with Mann + Hummel, Purem and Cormetech behind them.
What to watch. Bosch's DAC programme is already public and describes itself in terms of industrialisation, thermal management, and manufacturing capability. The scale of the patent position underneath it is not public. Track first unit deployment, and whether Bosch or Volkswagen supplies hardware to third-party operators rather than running plants themselves.
2. Structured ceramic contactors
What it is. A structured ceramic contactor is a rigid extruded honeycomb block whose thousands of parallel channel walls carry the capture sorbent, replacing a packed bed of loose pellets as the element air flows through.
NGK Insulators and Corning are filing on the form itself as well as on what goes inside it. NGK Insulators has seven families on the form — honeycomb structures and gas recovery devices (WO 2025/187786 A1, WO 2026/038444 A1, WO 2026/034207 A1) and porous bodies (WO 2026/063294 A1). Corning's four move in a more specific direction: a porous article with flow channels lined with metal-organic framework particles (WO 2026/138647 A1), an extrudable formulation for a mesoporous carbon monolith (WO 2025/159885 A1), a honeycomb substrate engineered for high porosity and surface area (WO 2026/106803 A1).
What changes. A packed bed forces a trade-off between contact area and pressure drop. Pressure drop is the largest parasitic load in a DAC plant; it is fan power. Parallel straight channels give the area without the same resistance, which is why catalytic converters are monoliths and not pebble beds. Corning's MOF-lined channel filing addresses a second constraint. Metal-organic frameworks have stayed pre-commercial for fifteen years partly because a research-grade powder is not a component; putting the material on a substrate an extrusion line already produces at volume is a route past that.
Who is building it. 21 families across 13 assignees, concentrated in NGK Insulators (7), Corning (4), and Cormetech (2). NGK Insulators and Corning are the two dominant global suppliers of ceramic honeycomb substrates for automotive catalytic converters, an object made in the hundreds of millions annually on established extrusion lines.
What to watch. A named DAC customer for either company. The filings show intent; a supply agreement would show commitment, and the step between the two could be unusually short here. Both already own the extrusion lines, and that capacity frees up as ICE production winds down — neither needs to build a factory to become a volume supplier.
3. Replaceable sorbent cartridges
What it is. A replaceable sorbent cartridge is a rigid, gas-permeable container that holds capture material as a sealed, handleable unit, so sorbent can be installed, swapped, and transported instead of being loaded loose into a fixed bed.
The engineering problem is containment. A granular or friable sorbent has to sit in a bed that stays gas-permeable through repeated thermal cycling and physical handling, without compacting, dusting, or letting air channel around it. Volkswagen's cassette is a frame with side walls and support ribs carrying a gas-permeable sorbent mesh across the base (DE 102024115081 A1). Carbyon supports a porous tubular sorbent at both ends so the span between them holds its shape (WO 2025/202517 A1). Mosaic Materials covers a sorbent bed cartridge and modular bed system (US 2025/0345737 A1) and modules for retaining loose solid sorbent (US 2026/0131274 A1). Removr's transport container provides access to the inner volume of each cassette while in transit (WO 2026/027490 A2). Skytree's moving-bed desorption assembly takes the adjacent route, feeding sorbent through a heated chamber rather than sealing it in a module (WO 2025/250013 A2).
What changes. A cartridge makes the sorbent a serviced consumable rather than part of the plant. Buying a plant means owning sorbent degradation as a capital risk on a technology with limited long-run field data. A cartridge turns it into an operating line item with a service contract, moves degradation risk to the supplier who understands it, and allows regeneration wherever cheap or waste heat exists rather than at a site chosen for air access.
Who is building it. 30 families from 25 independent assignees, close to one assignee per family and the highest convergence ratio in the corpus. Unrelated organisations reached the same architecture in the same year. GE Vernova holds five families, with Mann + Hummel, Munters Europe and Skytree also present.
What to watch. The first DAC supply agreement written as a service contract rather than a capital sale. Until one exists, this is an architecture with patents behind it and no commercial precedent.
4. CO₂ conditioning and purity
What it is. CO₂ conditioning is the set of cleanup, drying, and purification steps that turn a raw capture stream into CO₂ meeting the specification a pipeline, storage site, or industrial buyer will actually accept.
The filings are specific about which impurity is being removed and why: treating NOx separated from CO₂ (UOP, WO 2026/117439 A1), dehydration before cryogenic CO₂ fractionation (UOP, WO 2026/096374 A1), ultra-pure CO₂ production within a capture process (UOP, WO 2026/143254 A1), hydrogen recovery downstream of solvent-based CO₂ removal (UOP, WO 2026/089987 A1), multi-stage membrane filtration for water management in a capture plant (Nuovo Pignone, WO 2025/209848 A2), a corrugated screen packing assembly installation (Nuovo Pignone, WO 2025/162873 A1).
What changes. Captured CO₂ is not transport-ready. Water and nitrogen oxides corrode pipelines and breach transport specifications, and utilisation pathways demand higher purity than geological storage does. Capture cost per tonne is the number in every project announcement; conditioning capex and the contracted purity specification are the numbers that determine whether the tonnes can actually be sold or stored, and they are rarely published. On a project appraisal, those are the line items to interrogate.
Who is building it. 48 families from 45 assignees. This is the flattest cluster in the corpus, and is led by process licensors rather than capture companies. UOP, Honeywell's licensing arm, has ten families; Nuovo Pignone, Baker Hughes' Italian turbomachinery business, has ten; Bosch has five. These are balance-of-plant suppliers whose position holds regardless of which capture chemistry prevails.
What to watch. Purity specification appearing as a negotiated contractual term in offtake and transport agreements. Once buyers start specifying it, the conditioning market becomes visible.
5. Distributed DAC in building air systems
What it is. Distributed DAC means placing small capture units inside the ventilation systems of existing buildings, so that many buildings each remove a modest volume of CO₂ instead of a few large purpose-built plants removing a lot.
Siemens Energy's eleven families read as a product programme rather than a set of concepts: a distributed DAC system and components for use with existing HVAC systems (WO 2026/068457 A1), energy-efficient indirect heating for DAC (EP 4706800 A1), dry ice deposition for maintaining vacuum during desorption (EP 4763310 A1), a filter system for reducing airborne particles (EP 4635597 A1), a method for operating a DAC plant (EP 4688216 A1), and an apparatus for testing long-term hydrothermal stability of sorbent materials (EP 4733741 A1).
What changes. Centralised DAC needs land, a grid connection, permitting, and a route to storage. A building already has air handling, a power supply, and no separate permitting question. Capture moves from project development to retrofit, and the addressable site count moves from dozens to millions. It also opens a route to on-site CO₂ supply for buildings and indoor agriculture rather than sequestration. The durability test-rig filing sits at the far end of that programme: companies build test apparatus when they are engineering for service life and warranty.
Who is building it. 24 families across 23 assignees. Siemens Energy holds eleven, Bosch four, Mitsubishi Electric three.
What to watch. A named building pilot, and entry by HVAC OEMs — Daikin, Carrier, Trane. Mitsubishi Electric is already in.
6. Electrochemical and pH-swing capture
What it is. Electrochemical and pH-swing capture uses an electric current to shift the acidity of the capture medium, driving CO₂ on and then off it — replacing the heating and cooling cycle that conventional capture depends on.
The mechanisms in this corpus are electrogenerated acids and bases, electrodialysis and bipolar membranes, and the names on the filings are mostly unfamiliar: capture and release using electrogenerated acids and bases (Eleryc, US 2025/0332539 A1), capture across different gas input streams (Eleryc, US 2026/0115657 A1), an electrochemical processing module for gas separation (Beyond Captur, KR 20260084490 A), an electrochemical process and plant (Phlair, DE 102024117655 A1), an electrochemical cell and CO₂ recovery system (Denso).
What changes. Thermal regeneration ties a capture plant to a heat source, imposes a temperature swing that caps cycle rate, and degrades the sorbent every time it swings. An electrochemical cell runs at ambient temperature on electricity, which lets capture follow a power price signal and lets it be sited without reference to available steam.
Who is building it. 44 families from 35 assignees. There is no concentration, meaning that there is no settling on an architecture yet. Bosch holds eight. GS Yuasa, a battery manufacturer, has two, and Denso has two, which puts the electrode and stack manufacturing base inside the cluster. This is also the cluster most likely to be missed: electrochemical capture takes a median of 40.7 months from priority to grant against 25.7 for geological sequestration, so an analysis built on granted patents sees it at roughly two-thirds of its real size.
What to watch. Further entry by electrode and stack manufacturers. Each one brings battery-scale manufacturing to a technology currently built in single units.
3 carbon capture technologies to track in 2027
These three sit on thinner evidence, fewer families, or concentrated in a single filer, so they are track items rather than established shifts. Each earns a place by resolving a known cost bottleneck or by putting an unexpected entrant in the field.
7. High-temperature ceramic membranes
High-temperature ceramic membranes separate CO₂ directly from flue gas at stack temperature, removing the cooling and reheat loop that dominates retrofit cost. Ceramics also avoid the plasticisation that causes polymer membranes to fail at high CO₂ partial pressure.
Valero, a petroleum refiner, has filed the most internally coherent programme in the corpus: seven families between June 2024 and January 2025 on lithium zirconate compositions (US 2025/0387774 A1), a solid-state membrane for selective CO₂ capture (US 2026/0158443 A1), additive manufacturing of zirconate membranes (US 2026/0158437 A1) and the assemblies to hold them.
8. Capture wired into steel byproduct streams
Integrated steel capture routes CO₂ capture and mineral carbonation through the scrubbing loops, slag handling, and gas streams a plant already operates, so the capture step does not have to fund a new absorber, regenerator, and compression train on its own. Steel slag is a calcium-rich waste produced in large volume, and carbonating it converts a disposal liability into a saleable product.
POSCO has 21 families doing exactly this: mineral carbonation linked to the desulfurisation process (KR 20260095559 A), slag carbonation linked to synthesis gas production (KR 20260096596 A). Behind it, Korea's Institute for Advanced Engineering holds 15 families, JFE Engineering 8, Hyundai Steel 4, and Nippon Steel 3. ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, SSAB, Nucor and Voestalpine have none.
9. Sorbent–OEM integration
Triazolate MOFs are metal-organic frameworks built on triazolate linkers, chosen because the resulting structure survives the hot, wet flue gas that degraded earlier MOF sorbents and kept the material class out of commercial capture for fifteen years.
Svante has ten families, two of them co-filed with GE Infrastructure Technology on zinc triazolate oxalate sorbents (AU 2025/224311 A1, AU 2025/224130 A1) against a shared 2024-02-23 priority date. Co-assignment with a turbine OEM answers the question a buyer asks first: who carries the performance warranty. Climeworks, Heirloom, and Carbon Engineering have no OEM co-assignments in this corpus.
What the Prism technology watch means overall for carbon capture in 2027
Nine technologies, one direction. Not one of them is a new way to bind CO₂ to a molecule. They are ways to move granular solids, extrude a contactor, contain a sorbent, condition a gas stream, fit capture into a building, run the cycle on electrons, separate at stack temperature, and share equipment with a process that already runs.
Exhibit 2: Prism detecting carbon capture technologies to watch in 2027
Carbon capture is leaving the laboratory and entering the supply chain. Three things follow for 2027 specifically.
Hardware supply relationships become visible. These are 2024 priorities. They publish through 2026 and, at a 28-month median, grant through 2027. The organisations filing now, such as Bosch, Corning, NGK Insulators, Siemens Energy, UOP, Nuovo Pignone, are on a timeline that puts commercial supply, not further research, in that window. The first tier-1 hardware supply agreement with a DAC operator is the event to look for, and it is more likely than not to arrive before the sector's cost-per-tonne headlines change much.
A cartridge format contest. Thirty families from twenty-five assignees, no dominant design, and no commercial precedent. That is the profile of a format still being decided. By 2027, either a dominant cartridge geometry starts to consolidate, which unlocks third-party sorbent supply and a service market, or the architecture stays proprietary per vendor and the capex-to-consumable shift stalls. Both outcomes are legible early, in whether suppliers begin filing on interfaces rather than on modules.
Conditioning gets priced. Forty-eight families across forty-five assignees, led by process licensors rather than capture companies, is a layer being engineered ahead of demand. As projects reach financial close, CO₂ purity specification moves from a technical footnote to a contractual term — and conditioning capex moves from an unstated line to a negotiated one. Anyone appraising a capture project in 2027 should expect to see it itemised.
About the method: The filing signal analysis
This analysis was produced using filing signal analysis. The signal is the filing decision itself. Preparing and prosecuting a patent application costs real money, so a filing is committed R&D spend rather than stated intent. The application becomes public 18 months after filing, making a published application the earliest evidence of technical commitment. Granted patents carry the same filing date but publish around ten months later.
Plus, the time until receiving the grant is different from field to field. Geological sequestration grants at a median of 25.7 months from priority; electrochemical capture takes 40.7, because novel electrochemistry draws harder examination. Count grants, and the slower technology looks smaller than it is.
Prism discovered 1,507 unique patent families covering CO₂ capture and disposal (CPC class Y02C20/40) with priority dates from 2024 onward, published to August 2026, deduplicated at the simple family level so each invention counts once regardless of how many jurisdictions it was filed in. China is excluded. A company absent from these results is not necessarily absent from the field and might sit in another classification.
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