Fort Worth's Element3 has proven extracting lithium from produced water can be done. It's already working to expand operations

Earlier this year, the company established the first lithium mining project to market in the U.S. since 1967.

By Lana Ferguson, Staff Writer

May 1, 2026

A Fort Worth-based company that has been turning oil field wastewater into battery-grade lithium for months now is poised to aggressively expand its operations, its head executive told The Dallas Morning News in a recent interview.

Element3 has already been a pioneer of sorts, using its own breakthrough, domestic technology to extract lithium from produced water, a salty liquid byproduct of almost all oil and gas operations.

Earlier this year, founder and CEO Hood Whitson cut the ribbon on the company's 3,000-ton facility in the Permian Basin. It's the first commercial-scale lithium carbonate processing facility in the region, and the first new domestic lithium carbonate production facility to come online in more than 50 years.

Lithium is an essential component in products millions of people use each day from laptops and cellphones to hybrid and electric cars. It's also critical in the energy transition being used in battery energy storage systems that reserve power from solar and wind.

Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian and other state and federal leaders were in attendance where Gov. Greg Abbott praised Texas as being America's undisputed energy leader, adding that the future of the country depends on producing critical minerals like lithium.

"By the grace of God, we have lithium and other essential rare earth materials right here in our own state," Abbott said. "Element3's plan is the epitome of quintessential Texas ingenuity, building the first lithium carbonate production plant from oil field waste right here in the United States. Texas is bigger, stronger, and better because of Element3."

Element3 works in a hub-and-spoke model. The company uses direct lithium extraction, or DLE, technology to remove lithium from produced water and turn it into a lithium chloride concentrate in the oil field. Then, that substance is transported to the company's facility where it's turned into battery-grade lithium carbonate. The final product is a solid and the main material that goes into the battery supply chain.

"The thesis from the beginning has been that we don't have to dig a new mine or build a new pipeline or drill a new well, the opportunity is that the infrastructure is already here," Whitson said. "In Texas, the Permian Basin has the water, we have these midstream networks, we have skilled workforce and a lot of know-how. We're just layering a critical materials opportunity on top of what West Texas has already built over the last century."

Whitson, a seventh-generation Texan, said he's proud to be doing the work in his home state and have the chance to show others that the oil and gas industry can continue to evolve and innovate.

There are more than 20 million barrels of produced water being brought to the surface each day in the Permian Basin, which creates a high-volume but low-concentration solution, Whitson said. This is different than the world-class brines being extracted from wells on the other side of the state in northeast Texas.

Whitson calls the wastewater "the nation's largest untapped natural resource."

"It's produced water already sitting in billions of dollars of infrastructure on the surface, permitted and ready for extraction," Whitson said. "It is ultimately a waste product that we can make good use out of. At least in the first phase of the company, our focus is to take advantage of what's already there and work hand-in-hand with the oil and gas industry to utilize what is an incredible resource and industrial base in Texas."

When Element3 started a handful of years ago, several factors were aligning.

Whitson anticipated there would be large quantities of produced water over the next decade in West Texas, the Department of Energy supported various lithium technologies in recent years, a great body of engineering and scientific research had been established and the need for lithium and the electrification of everything was accelerating.

Momentum has remained high as the company has worked to install its first full-scale, commercial-size lithium extraction plant in the Midland Basin.

"From here, we'll continue to roll up our sleeves and roll out new partners and new facilities," Whitson said. "We intend to fill up this plant and then a few more. We have a pretty aggressive growth plan for at least the next two years."

The ultimate goal right now for Element3 is to be a major player in the U.S. market, producing tens of thousands of tons of mined lithium carbonate.

"We're proudly a Texas company founded in Fort Worth and operating in Midland and the Permian Basin, built for oil and gas, really working to create jobs and strengthen that oil and gas economy, and show that we can participate not just in traditional energy but creating materials for the future of energy," Whitson said.

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