Patent documents as a technology mapping tool in the Brazilian energy sector focused on the oil, gas and coke industries

The present paper aims at mapping the Brazilian technologies in the oil, gas and coke industries. The research was done on the basis of the patent applications filed by residents at the National Institute of Industrial Property of Brazil (INPI) in the period from 1970 to 2007. The research has shown the technologies involved in the filings of patent applications that had had the greatest interest, over the period studied, were those related to IPC subclasses C10L, C10B and C10G. The subclass C10L was the subclass with the highest number of patents applications filed, highlighting groups C10L 1, liquid carbonaceous fuels (gasoline, diesel, biodiesel and ethanol), and C10L 5, solid fuels (source mineral, non-mineral-vegetable and animal). In the subclass C10B, the group C10B 49, destructive distillation of solid carbonaceous material, showed the highest number of patent applications filed. In the Subclass C10G, the group C10G 11, processes of catalytic cracking, showed the largest number of deposits of patent applications. It is noteworthy that 40% of deposits of patent applications occurred between 2000 and 2007.