Identifying bioethanol technology generations from the patent data

Abstract Reliable search results are necessary in the empirical analyses utilizing patent data. In this study, we evaluate the tagging schemes for patent documents related to low carbon technologies and provide a patent analysis of bioethanol with PCT patent publications between 2010 and 2016. The classification-based queries were optimized to find grain bioethanol (1G), cellulosic bioethanol (2G) and patents belonging to grain and cellulosic bioethanol (1G AND 2G) trajectories. The results reveal that based on original search strategy, only second-generation cellulosic bioethanol patents could be identified with a good match. Through use of co-classification and content analysis of patents we expand understanding of bioethanol inventions and potential future technology generations in the field.

[1]  Valeria Costantini,et al.  A keyword selection method for mapping technological knowledge in specific sectors through patent data: the case of biofuels sector , 2015 .

[2]  Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie,et al.  The Worldwide Count of Priority Patents: A New Indicator of Inventive Activity , 2012 .

[3]  Mamatha Devarapalli,et al.  A review of conversion processes for bioethanol production with a focus on syngas fermentation , 2015 .

[4]  Thapat Silalertruksa,et al.  Long-term bioethanol system and its implications on GHG emissions: a case study of Thailand. , 2011, Environmental science & technology.

[5]  Ivan Haščič,et al.  Measuring environmental innovation using patent data , 2015 .

[6]  Hannes Toivanen,et al.  The emergence of patent races in lignocellulosic biofuels, 2002–2015 , 2017 .

[7]  V. Veefkind,et al.  A new EPO classification scheme for climate change mitigation technologies , 2012 .

[8]  Daniel Sperling,et al.  Tracking U.S. biofuel innovation through patents , 2016 .

[9]  T. Tan,et al.  Bioethanol from Lignocellulosic Biomass: Current Findings Determine Research Priorities , 2014, TheScientificWorldJournal.

[10]  Govinda R. Timilsina,et al.  Second-Generation Biofuels: Economics and Policies , 2010 .

[11]  David Hunt,et al.  Patent searching : tools & techniques , 2007 .

[12]  Nick Johnstone,et al.  The Use of Patent Statistics for International Comparisons and Analysis of Narrow Technological Fields , 2015 .

[13]  Ian Ruthven,et al.  Evaluating Real Patent Retrieval Effectiveness , 2011, Current Challenges in Patent Information Retrieval.

[14]  Rainer Frietsch,et al.  Linking Technology Areas to Industrial Sectors , 2003 .

[15]  Davide Russo,et al.  Searching in Cooperative Patent Classification: Comparison between keyword and concept-based search , 2013, Adv. Eng. Informatics.

[16]  Ioannis V. Skiadas,et al.  Toward a common classification approach for biorefinery systems , 2009 .

[17]  Jiuping Xu,et al.  Feedstock for Bioethanol Production from a Technological Paradigm Perspective , 2015 .

[18]  Jean-Michel Lavoie,et al.  From first- to third-generation biofuels: Challenges of producing a commodity from a biomass of increasing complexity , 2013 .

[19]  J. Leker,et al.  Patent indicators for monitoring convergence - examples from NFF and ICT , 2011 .

[20]  Martin G. Moehrle,et al.  Use of a new patent text-mining and visualization method for identifying patenting patterns over time: Concept, method and test application , 2017 .

[21]  Chris Somerville,et al.  The Billion-Ton Biofuels Vision , 2006, Science.

[22]  S. Bröring,et al.  Patterns of Convergence Within the Emerging Bioeconomy — The Case of the Agricultural and Energy Sector , 2015 .

[23]  Hamje Heather,et al.  EU renewable energy targets in 2020: Revised analysis of scenarios for transport fuels. JEC Biofuels Programme , 2014 .

[24]  Carlo Menon,et al.  Identifying and inducing breakthrough inventions: An application related to climate change mitigation , 2015 .

[25]  Kazuyuki Shimizu,et al.  An overview on biofuel and biochemical production by photosynthetic microorganisms with understanding of the metabolism and by metabolic engineering together with efficient cultivation and downstream processing , 2015, Bioresources and Bioprocessing.

[26]  Anselm Eisentraut,et al.  Sustainable Production of Second-Generation Biofuels: Potential and Perspectives in Major Economies and Developing Countries , 2010 .

[27]  Rainer Frietsch,et al.  Which road to take? Filing routes to the European Patent Office , 2013 .

[28]  Allan Hanbury,et al.  Patent Retrieval , 2013, Found. Trends Inf. Retr..

[29]  Osmo Kuusi,et al.  Examining open-endedness of expectations in emerging technological fields: The case of cellulosic ethanol , 2015 .

[30]  Bart Verspagen,et al.  MERIT concordance table: IPC - ISIC (rev.2) , 1994 .