Innovation News

Austere Environmental offers technology that solves a major issue in the oil and gas industry: The disposal of contaminants in landfills that include base oil and water. 

This company can set up on site at a drilling rig, recover the water and recycle 99.9% of the base oil found, saving an estimated $4 billion worth of the lubricant each year for immediate reuse. 

The typical rig creates 40 barrels of fluid a day to ship to a landfill. Austere Environmental returns that to the operator for reuse, saving money on disposal costs and reducing environmental liability. 

"When you distill whiskey, you are quite literally evaporating water and alcohol out of the mash," Dr. Curtis Purrington, Founder and CEO of Austere Environmental, told the Tulsa World in an interview. "And we did the exact same thing. We just do it with basically ... vacuum distillation, but we do it on oil." 

Purrington says the company plans to launch its first two commercial units in November 2026. 

"We can certainly clean other things besides oil," Purrington told the Tulsa World. "We can extract any volatile (assets). ... Petroleum is kind of like the elephant in the room. So typically that's what we are just focused on."

The Denver-based Austere Environmental was one of four startup companies awarded a $100,000 grant by Rose Rock Bridge, the funding arm of Tulsa Innovation Labs (TIL).  

The non-dilutive funding helps establish a presence in Tulsa, partner directly with major energy operators and support the creation of jobs. 

Learn more at eaustere.com.