Unexpected Trend: Industries Seek More Patents for Fossil Fuel Cleanup Than for Generating Clean Energy

Written by Roberta Souza

Published on 15/02/2023 at 19:55

Updated on 15/02/2023 at 22:39

Foto: Reprodução brasilescola

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New Technologies Are Being Used Only to Clean Up the “Mess,” Not to Prevent Its Production

A survey conducted in patent databases around the world showed that there are some unexpected trends in R&D (Research and Development) of new technologies in the energy sector. The findings reveal that industries are more committed to new technologies for extracting fossil fuels than to the search for truly green and renewable energy technologies.

The report was compiled by the companies IFI and Digital Science and focused on two categories of patent applications. The first is represented by land drilling for oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials, or slurries of minerals from wells. The second involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to the generation, transmission, or distribution of energy.

New Drilling Technologies Rank 3rd Among the Fastest Growing

Data from the study reveals that new drilling technologies used by industries rose to 3rd place among the top 10 fastest-growing technologies of 2022, after being in 6th place in 2021. According to Mike Baycroft from IFI, “at the corporate R&D level, purely renewable energy doesn’t seem to be attracting the necessary funding for the widespread adoption needed to bring the world to net zero emissions.”

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On the other hand, it is noted that patents exclusively related to renewable energy have fallen significantly behind those filed or granted for drilling technology in the pursuit of fossil fuels.

“Energy companies continue to invest in R&D and seek decades of patent protection to extract fuel from the ground. According to our analysis, the majority of ‘green’ patents are focused on mitigating the negative effects of conventional energy sources, such as fossil fuels – to make these sources of energy ‘cleaner’ – rather than renewable sources receiving R&D investment. This suggests that fossil fuels will continue to be part of the energy landscape in the coming decades,” adds Baycroft.

Patents Applied for by Industries for Fossil Fuel and Renewable Energy

According to Technological Innovation, the top three industries investing in fossil fuel drilling technology in the past five years were:

Halliburton Energy Services Inc. (7,153 patent applications)
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (3,423 patent applications)
Schlumberger Technology Corp. (2,854 patent applications)

The leading companies investing in renewable energy technology in the past five years (by field), which represent a much smaller number, were:

Wind Energy: Vestas Wind Systems AS (988 patent applications)
Geothermal: Ice Thermal Harvesting LLC (27 patent applications)
Green Hydrogen: Toshiba Corp. (104 patent applications)
Photovoltaic (Solar): Samsung Display Co Ltd. (2,369 patent applications)

Unexpected Trend: Industries Seek More Patents for Fossil Fuel Cleanup Than for Generating Clean Energy

New Technologies Are Being Used Only to Clean Up the “Mess,” Not to Prevent Its Production

New Drilling Technologies Rank 3rd Among the Fastest Growing

Patents Applied for by Industries for Fossil Fuel and Renewable Energy

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Unexpected Trend: Industries Seek More Patents for Fossil Fuel Cleanup Than for Generating Clean Energy

New Technologies Are Being Used Only to Clean Up the “Mess,” Not to Prevent Its Production

New Drilling Technologies Rank 3rd Among the Fastest Growing

Patents Applied for by Industries for Fossil Fuel and Renewable Energy

A Chinese factory in Guangdong is assembling a humanoid robot every 30 minutes while Tesla, Figure, and Boston Dynamics still struggle to deliver 10 thousand per year.

Seven world powers including the US, China, and Russia are spending €22 billion on a reactor in the south of France that aims to confine plasma at 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times the temperature of the Sun’s core, using a magnetic field capable of lifting an entire aircraft carrier.

Secret chamber sealed 4,500 years ago found in the Pyramid of Khufu, and Hawass announces its opening to the world in 2026

A public school student single-handedly created a machine capable of treating water for up to 50 people using only solar energy. It was awarded third place at one of the most important science fairs in the world.

China has begun the second phase of energy assistance to Cuba with a 120 MW solar generation plan, and the first result is a photovoltaic park with batteries that regulates voltage, controls frequency, and provides local autonomy to an island suffocated by chronic blackouts.

Germany installed vertical solar panels on a lake in Bavaria, and the result broke conventional logic: instead of producing energy at midday peak, the plant generates more early in the morning and in the evening, exactly when families turn on appliances and factories are in full swing.

While countries lose water in the heat and dispute land for energy, India places solar panels over irrigation canals to generate electricity, shade the water, and transform agricultural infrastructure into a clean power plant.

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India tests compact solar desalination aiming for 10,000 liters of drinking water per day, uses solar heat to evaporate seawater in stages, and can reach islands, condominiums, and campuses after a pilot in the far south of the country.

A silent movement is transforming more than one million hectares of degraded lands in the Cerrado into a 2,600-kilometer biodiversity corridor along the Araguaia River, according to the Black Jaguar Foundation, which coordinates the project in Brazil.

Seismic sensors around the world detected a monotonous hum that lasted for 9 consecutive days, a signal unlike any earthquake ever recorded, and when scientists finally traced the origin, they discovered that an entire mountain had collapsed into a fjord in Greenland.