You're right to be skeptical. So were we.
The process works like a household water softener. Brine is pumped from underground formations, passes over a medium that selectively removes lithium ions, and is returned to the same aquifer. The volume difference is negligible: 200 parts per million removed. The same approach has been used for decades in the U.S. to extract bromine from brine at industrial scale.
Conventional lithium requires either hard-rock open-pit mines or large-scale evaporation ponds — both involving significant surface disruption. NewGenium's process requires only a wellhead, the same infrastructure used for bromine extraction in Arkansas and Texas for decades. No blasting. No open pit. No evaporation pond.
Note: Well pads and associated infrastructure do require some ground preparation. This claim reflects the absence of open-pit mining and large-scale surface operations specifically.
Conventional LFP routes through at least three countries: mining origin, China for refining — which controls "almost 100%" of global LFP processing — and the destination country. NewGenium's integrated process is designed to occur entirely within the United States, eliminating both ocean crossings and the China refining step.
The metric Murphy defines: lithium finished product (LFP) produced per unit of energy consumed — kilograms of LFP out per unit of energy in. Early engineering assessments indicate an order-of-magnitude improvement over conventional supply chains. An independent third-party lifecycle analysis is commissioned specifically because in-house analyses are easy to bias.
Hard-rock mining requires blasting, excavation, and significant land disturbance. Evaporation pond lithium (Atacama Desert) requires pumping brine into vast shallow pools and waiting 12–18 months for water to evaporate — permanently removing that water from the local water table. Brine extraction requires only a wellhead and processing equipment — the same infrastructure used for bromine in Arkansas and Texas for decades.
NewGenium investor webinar, June 24, 2026The Smackover formation already has active brine extraction by Albemarle, Tetra, and Lanxess for bromine. Those companies already have wells, permits, and infrastructure. NewGenium's near-term plan is to co-locate — extracting lithium from brine already being pumped to surface, significantly reducing permitting risk and infrastructure cost for the first plant.
NewGenium investor webinar, June 24, 2026NewGenium uses a "picket fence" IP strategy: high-level process claims are filed as patents while specific process details are maintained as trade secrets — preventing competitors from reading patents and reverse-engineering the process. The original HGenium water-splitting IP belongs to Caltech. NewGenium's lithium extraction IP is entirely separate and owned outright by the company.
NewGenium investor webinar, June 24, 2026The metric: LFP produced per unit of energy consumed — kg of LFP out per unit of energy in. Current figure is based on engineering modeling, not yet published or third-party verified. An independent lifecycle analysis has been commissioned from a third party specifically because in-house analyses are easy to bias.
This is a genuine tension worth acknowledging. Allen Morgan's view: NewGenium expands the lithium market, but in an environmentally superior way. Jonathan Cohen's view: NewGenium displaces dirtiest inputs without growing the overall market. Both agree the distinction may be semantic — the lithium market is growing with or without NewGenium, driven by EV adoption and grid storage. Murphy's framing is most defensible: the comparison is always against the next best alternative, not perfection.
Direct conversation + investor webinar, June–July 2026NewGenium's model is technology licensing — not owning and operating commercial plants. Strategic buyers (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Albemarle, GM, Ford, LG) would license the technology or acquire the company. The current $3M raise (SAFE, $20M pre-money) funds 18 months of scale-up from grams to kilograms — the milestone required to attract serious strategic interest. Chris Murphy's prior exit — Materia, sold to ExxonMobil Chemical — followed a similar pattern.
Investor webinar, June 24, 2026 + July 2026No perfect solution exists. But a demonstrably better one does — less land, less carbon, no China, water returned. NewGenium is it.
NewGenium · 2026
Independent third-party lifecycle analysis commissioned.