Technological trajectory in fuel cell technologies: A patent-based main path analysis

With rapid industrialization, increasing fossil fuel consumption, and growing environmental concerns, accelerating the energy transition has become an inescapable option. Fuel cells have attracted considerable attention from researchers due to their pollution-free and highly efficient properties. However, a systematic research gap still exists regarding the technological trajectory of this domain, which is crucial for comprehending the knowledge structure of fuel cells technologies. To address this gap, the current study utilizes patent data and employs a hierarchical knowledge persistence-based main path analysis to achieve three primary objectives: (1) tracing the technological development trends of fuel cell technologies in the whole domain and its three automatically subdivided sub-domains; (2) identifying key research areas, major contributors, and key dominant technologies within each sub-domain; (3) detecting promising technologies within each sub-domain through an analysis of changing trends in knowledge persistence observed in recent patents. The findings of this study may aid in identifying technical prospects within the fuel cell domain, providing decision-makers with valuable references for developing strategic plans to drive future technological growth.