Use of patents as a tool to map the technological development involving the hydrogen economy

The use of fossil fuels favors the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). With that in mind, there is a growing need to find sustainable energy options for the transport sector. Hydrogen appears as a potential substitute for fossil fuels. In this way, the objective of this study is to map the hydrogen economy through the patent consultation in the period 1998-2018. The documents found were tabulated in order to characterize the technological advance over the 1998-2018, showing countries that publish and priority patents and the major assignees. This time range was chosen due to the fact that prior to 1998 the number of patents for these technologies was not significant. The searches were conducted on the Questel Orbit platform. Data were filtered using some keywords and the International Patent Classification (IPC). The results show that Japan and United States are the countries with the highest number of patent families by priority. This fact indicates that there are expressive efforts for the technological advance, thus contributing, to be the countries that stand out in these technologies. This research shows that the assignees with the highest number of patents families by priority are Toyota Motor and Honda Motor.