Biological systems for CCS: Patent review as a criterion for technological development

One of the most useful mechanism for reducing and, if it were possible, reverting the global warming effects, consists on the development and use of new technologies for CO2 capture, storage, and utilization. Their implementation is a technological objective, but it can be subject to considerable political and social obstacles which should not prevent a progress on its investigation. Many reviews on this topic are published in the literature; however, the evolution of the related patent activity has been much less studied. This paper aims to analyse the state of the art during recent decade of biological systems for CO2 sequestration, according to the Cooperative Patent Classification criteria. An indicator of the innovative character of new patents, the Innovation index-i, is proposed based on the number of citations and the year of publication. Patents were sorted into two main groups, depending on whether they were based on the design of photobioreactors working with algae or whether they focused on the development of enzymes and bacteria for the optimization of the CO2 capture reactions. The results show a pronounced increment in innovative contributions through 2013, led by the USA and countries in Asia (China, Japan and Korea). In terms of companies involved in patent production, Alstom Technology Ltd. and CO2 Solutions Inc. are the most noted companies, with 9% and 8% of the publications, respectively.