# Patent Analysis of the Development of Technologies Applied to the Combustion Process
## 3 Results and Discussion
In 2020, the United States imported more than USD 4 billion worth of combustion engines, mainly from Mexico (USD 1.44B), Japan (USD 961M), Germany (USD 712M), the United Kingdom (USD 361M), and Italy (USD 360M) [64]. After the United States are Germany with 17.52% of the market share and China with 8.12%. In addition, it is possible to identify the participation of the EPO (19.66%) and the WIPO (8.12%). This result may indicate that the absorption of technologies in the European market ranks the region in second place as a market for inventions. In the case of WIPO, this result may indicate the participation of the technologies in 8.12% of the world markets. According to the DWPI database, overall, 2% of companies have filed in more than four countries. A global filing strategy may demonstrate the increased market potential in this space. Other data extracted from the DWPI database indicate that 59% of worldwide filings in these results are granted, which indicates protection for active (alive) patents in the relevant markets. Furthermore, 41% of this result set is pending applications. The higher percentages of applications point to a new or growing market, whereas lower application rates can point to already established markets or low-growth areas. A general analysis considering high percentages as above 50% can indicate that the market for the production of combustion processes may be establishing itself because of the recurrent use of combustion processes for energy, and the high amount of information and technologies that associate OEC with this process. However, it is important to mention that the search for methodologies involving processes with lower GHG emissions, for example, may be one of the factors why high percentages were not observed. This may strengthen the idea that new technologies, besides OEC, applied to the combustion process are characterized as a potential area of exploration, such as the involvement of acoustic excitation in the processes that, although the technological prospection itself has not been found in many patent applications, have shown good results in the scientific literature, indicating the possibility of their application to combustion processes, with the aim of reducing the negative effects of the process and potentializing the market with new technologies that can be patented [65; 66; 67; 68; 69; 70]. In terms of the technological areas of the prospected inventions (Figure 4), 10 technology classifications were found. According to the DWPI database, the number of technologies indicates recent innovations and can provide an overview of the \"state of the market\" and how it is segmented. The top three technologies in last 5 years presented and highlighted in the charts account for 68% of patent applications. The number of technology area assignments to patent applications can speak to a diverse portfolio or a specific technical focus. As can be seen, the three companies leading development in these technological areas are Siemens AG, Alstom Technology, and Asea Brown Boveri, and they account for 80% of all records in the entire results set. The technological area (a), in red, refers to \"combustor, gas turbine engine, fuel nozzle, heat shield, cooling hole, turbofan, impingement\". Here, Siemens AG and Alstom Technology have 33% of their patent applications classified in this area, while Asea Brown Boveri has 29%. Overall, 91% of the depositors highlighted in Figure 4 have filings classified in this technological area, which totals 33 records. The technological area (b), in pink, refers to \"gas turbine engine, combustor, turbocharger, compressor, turbomachine, bleed, spool\", and (c), in purple, refers to \"burner, combustion, fuel, gas, flue, fluidized bed reactor, coal\". The patent applications identified in these technology areas most often cite the use of OEC (or the injection of another type of gas) in the processes identified. Nevertheless, the use of acoustic excitation seems to be a more recent process.