Systems and methods for citrus essential oil isolation: a patent review

The citrus essential oil isolation has vast potential to valorize waste from the agro-industrial and food sectors. The objective of this work was to develop a review of patents on essential oil isolation systems from any plant and citrus essential oil isolation systems and/or methods. The technological search was carried out in the patent databases of Espacenet, Patentscope, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Google Patents, LENS ORG, and USPTO from 2000 to 2021. The results highlight that most of the inventions are from China and consist of isolation methods for citrus essential oil. The USA´s inventions stand out as systems that can be produced on a larger scale. The patent shares of the educational and private sectors are 26% and 74%, respectively. About 10.53% of patents protect commercially exploited products. Finally, an opportunity was detected to protect methods and/or systems that integrate renewable energy technologies.