{
  "id": 16586716,
  "title": "This Texas startup is turning oil well waste into EV batteries",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/26/this-texas-startup-is-turning-oil-well-waste-into-ev-batteries",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-26T09:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91628438/this-texas-startup-is-turning-oil-well-waste-into-ev-batteries"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Across the Permian Basin of West Texas, oil derricks extract massive amounts of oil every day, approximately 6 million barrels. Alongside, around 26 million barrels of brackish water, also known as wastewater, is extracted during oil drilling. This wastewater, rich in minerals, tends to be black-gray due to oil residue and has an unpleasant odor from underground bacteria. Traditionally seen as a waste product, Houston-based startup Element3 is turning this wastewater into a source for lithium, a critical element needed for EV batteries. Lithium, the third element on the periodic table, is the focus of Element3's innovative concept, which essentially reimagines a waste product into a valuable resource for clean energy. Element3's CEO and founder, Hood Whitson, describes this as a circular economy, where waste is turned into value. Established in 2021, Element3 is working towards commercializing Department of Energy research from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to filter this oil by-product, with the aim of scaling up production across Texas. The company has secured over $20 million in funding and employs 15 people. The Permian Basin water is five times saltier than today's ocean water and contains lithium, magnesium, and strontium. Whitson found the properties of this water and realized that energy companies had already invested in the infrastructure for its extraction. This wastewater is typically diverted to be used in fracking. Element3 sets up a processing plant adjacent to these pipes to divert, filter, and return the wastewater to the existing pipe system, thereby eliminating the need for disposal or movement. The company operates a 6,000-square-foot commercial extraction facility in Midland, adjacent to the oil fields. This facility uses a proprietary medium, a specialized direct lithium exchange unit, to filter the water, extracting lithium chloride. The site, which opened in February, is the first new lithium extraction facility in the U.S. since the 1960s, capable of producing up to 3,000 tons of lithium annually. This capacity is significantly less than the only existing U.S. source of lithium, a mine in Silver Springs, Nevada, which produces about 5,000 tons annually. Despite this, Whitson views this as a new opportunity to create good-paying energy jobs and demonstrate how energy companies can adapt to changing energy demands. Other companies are also exploring the potential of this wastewater, with Iofina opening a facility in West Texas to generate iodine from it. For Whitson, the Element3 process of extracting lithium from wastewater is a lower-emission method compared to existing U.S. mines and foreign processing facilities, such as those in Chile. The energy industry in Texas, traditionally dominated by oil and gas, has long embraced a diverse approach, with significant investments in wind, solar, and geothermal energy. Whitson believes in the electrification of everything and sees Element3 as part of a larger shift happening across Texas, leveraging the existing infrastructure in West Texas to create a critical materials industry.",
  "summary": "Across the Permian Basin, the vast, mineral-rich swath of land in West Texas that supplies much of the nation’s crude oil, derricks pump out massive amounts of oil, roughly 6 million barrels a day. But that amount pales in comparison with the amount of dirty, brackish water that’s also extracted during oil drilling. Drilling in the Permian Basin also unearths roughly 26 million barrels of water a…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}