The former chief science officer of EnergyX has sued the lithium company in federal court, alleging that CEO Teague Egan pushed him out of the company while he was hospitalized for a mental health crisis and that EnergyX later wrongly cut his ownership stake and stripped away his shareholder rights.
The lawsuit was filed May 29 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico by Theodore “TJ” Dilenschneider, a chemical engineer who says he co-invented the membrane technology EnergyX was built on and served as its first chief science officer. EnergyX, formally Energy Exploration Technologies Inc., is the company that opened its Project Lonestar lithium demonstration plant at TexAmericas Center near the Red River Army Depot in March.
According to the complaint, Dilenschneider helped develop the metal-organic framework, or MOF, membrane technology used to extract lithium from brine and worked with Egan to pitch the venture to investors and lithium producers before EnergyX was incorporated in December 2018. The suit says Egan introduced him to prospective partners as the company’s “lead engineer” and that “EnergyX thus would not exist without Mr. Dilenschneider.”
The complaint alleges that in the fall of 2019, Dilenschneider suffered an acute mental health crisis and voluntarily hospitalized himself, later being diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder. While he was hospitalized, the suit says, Egan emailed him to end his role as chief science officer, writing that working with him had been “instrumental to the success we have had at EnergyX thus far.” Dilenschneider claims he was never accused of failing in his duties and that the company continued to publicly identify him as its chief science officer in press releases as late as September 2020.
From there, the lawsuit alleges, EnergyX “launched an assault” on his equity. Dilenschneider says the company issued tens of millions of new shares without adjusting his holdings as required by anti-dilution provisions in his stock agreements, cutting his stake by nearly 40% — from 0.938% of the company to 0.572%. He says EnergyX did not notify him of the transactions and that he only learned of them after gaining access to the company’s capitalization table in February 2024.
The complaint also alleges that EnergyX adopted a 2021 amendment to its certificate of incorporation that weakened the rights attached to his preferred stock — without giving him notice or a vote — in violation of the Puerto Rico General Corporations Act. It further claims Egan persuaded Dilenschneider to convert his preferred shares to common stock by concealing those changes and misstating how many shares he held, at a time when he was again impaired by mental illness. Dilenschneider argues that conversion is legally void.
The suit says that when Dilenschneider demanded in March 2026 that the company restore his ownership and rights, EnergyX first ignored him and then, for the first time, took the position that he had never vested any equity and was not a stockholder at all — an assertion the complaint calls “absurd,” noting that the company had recognized him as a shareholder for years and still lists him as one in its records.
The complaint brings five claims: breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, violation of the Puerto Rico Corporations Act, fraud, and a request for a declaratory judgment. Dilenschneider is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $75,000, restoration of his ownership stake to at least 0.938%, court declarations voiding the 2021 certificate and the stock conversion, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. He has requested a jury trial.
The allegations in the complaint are unproven, and EnergyX has not yet filed a response in court. The company did not respond to a request for comment from TXK today.
EnergyX, headquartered in Puerto Rico with research operations in Austin, commissioned its $20 million Project Lonestar demonstration plant in Hooks in March, billing it as the largest direct lithium extraction facility in the United States. The company manages roughly 50,000 acres of lithium brine resources across Texas and Arkansas and has said it intends to build a much larger production plant in the region.
Update Thursday, June 4, 2026 – In a statement emailed to TXK Today after publication, EnergyX firmly denied the allegations and characterized Dilenschneider as a former consultant rather than a co-founder. The company said he was hired as a consultant in April 2019 while still a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin and was given the title of chief science officer. It said the shares he was awarded in May 2019 were subject to a six-month vesting cliff and that his services were terminated that October, before any of those shares had vested. EnergyX also said the University of Texas membrane technology from its earliest days is not the basis of its current technology platform, noting that it licensed that intellectual property in 2019 and ended the license in 2022 without using the patents, a point it said is reflected in its SEC filings. The company said it was founded solely by Teague Egan, who incorporated it in December 2018, and that it would defend itself vigorously. Because the matter is in active litigation, EnergyX said it would not comment further.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story described Theodore Dilenschneider as a co-founder of EnergyX. That characterization is drawn from his lawsuit and is disputed by the company, which identifies Teague Egan as its founder. The story has been updated to identify Dilenschneider by his former title, chief science officer, a role EnergyX publicly attributed to him.