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Rock Oil Refining completes circle to transform waste into energy

Rock Oil Refining completes circle to transform waste into energy Rock Oil Refining completes circle to transform waste into energy

Stratford-based Rock Oil Refining is one of two Wisconsin businesses that collect, recycle and resell the oil to other businesses. Photo by Rock Oil Refining

By Casey Krautkramer, The Record-Review

Rock Oil Refining Inc. in rural Stratford is one of only two Wisconsin based businesses that currently pick up used oil, recycle it, and then sell and deliver it to other businesses, according to Rock Oil co-owner Dave Feemster. The only other company is Halron Lubricants which has its headquarters in Green Bay.

Self-taught electrician Sylvester Rock founded Rock Refining Company in 1950 on a four-acre corner piece of land located south of Rock Road where the current business is located in the town of Cleveland. Rock picked up used oil from businesses and developed a process of filtering it. He would then sell the recycled oil to area cheese factories to operate their steam boilers. “It was less expensive for cheese factories to buy used oil as an alternative fuel than new oil for their steam boilers,” Feemster said. “Sylvester really didn’t think of his new idea as recycling but rather as a way of providing for his family.”

When Sylvester started his business he had to convince businesses to save the used oil for him rather than dumping it or using as dust suppression. One of his first used oil clients was the military base at Fort McCoy. He frequented Fort McCoy hunting for army surplus supplies and managed to get them to save their used oil for him as well.

Rock retired after 35 years of owning and operating Rock Refining Co. He sold the business to his three sons Alan, Mike and Peter Rock and his son-in-law, Dave Feemster, in May of 1986. They inherited 17 cheese factories from Rock to supply fuel made from used oil for their steam boilers. Sylvester had also developed a market with a local asphalt producer which transferred to the new business. The name of the new company was changed from Rock Refining Co. to Rock Oil Refining Inc.

Prior to the ownership transfer there were no specific federal government regulations on businesses collecting and recycling used oil and then marketing it to companies for reuse. During the 1980’s the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was considering “listing” used oil as a “hazardous waste” which caused the boys to hesitate on moving forward as they felt this decision would result in a very stringent set of rules in which to operate the business. In 1985 the EPA made a decision and set into law a set of “Used Oil Regulations” which classified used oil as a “solid waste” and promoted recycling rather than giving used oil the stigma of hazardous waste label. The decision was well received by the Rock family.

The second generation family owners then decided to move forward with the construction of an oil recycling facility in 1986-87, utilizing state-ofthe- art oil processing technology developed by the company. The new Rock Oil Refining continued collecting and selling used oil fuel to cheese factory steam boilers and asphalt companies to use in fueling equipment in their sand and gravel pits.

Starting in 1990 the State of Wisconsin banned the disposal of used oil in landfills which fueled the oil recycling efforts in Wisconsin.

The Rock family has modified its methods of doing business over the years to keep up with changes in the oil recycling industry. The company was losing business from cheese factories during a period between 1990 and 2010 because they either closed or merged with larger cheese factories. At the same time the company was losing business from cheese factories, it was gaining business from more asphalt companies and developing markets in the mining industry.

In the 1990s, the EPA began studying the effects of landfilling used oil filters in the nation’s landfills because they still contained some oil in them. Rock Oil sensed a forthcoming regulation on managing used oil filters so they started collecting used oil filters and developing a method of recycling them. As a result of many federal studies and state level studies, states started banning used oil filters from their landfills with Wisconsin jumping on the bandwagon in 2011. Rock Oil developed a process to dismantle the filters and burn the contents in a “waste to energy” system that supplies energy for the facilities processes. The steel from the filters is recycled through local scrap recyclers.

The EPA also began cracking down in the 1990s on businesses sewering used antifreeze that was ultimately ending up in municipality wastewater treatment plants.

After many inquiries from customers who needed an outlet for used antifreeze Rock Oil Refining began collecting used antifreeze from its current customers and started work on a recycling process. Rock Oil Refining’s current process extracts the pure ethylene glycol (EG), which prevents vehicle products from freezing in winter, from the used antifreeze and sells it to chemical and oil companies to produce products such as coolant products and windshield washer fluid. Rock Oil also produces automotive grade antifreeze made from the re-processed EG in several formulation grades and colors. The products are marketed directly to customers or sold through distributors all over the United States. As demand for the antifreeze products increased Rock Oil could not find enough used antifreeze to process so the company now receives shipments of used antifreeze from five other collection companies operating in the Midwest.

Between 2010 and 2012, Rock Oil Refining further diversified the operation by designing and building a re-refining plant used to process used oil into Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) and Group 1 Base Oil. The new products targeted lubricating oil markets with a portion of the used oil the company collected. The decision to move into the lubricating market resulted in a long painful learning curve but has since paid off with approximately 30 percent of the collected oil penetrating the oil lubrication market.

As for the four co-owners of Rock Oil Refining Inc., Peter Rock retired on Jan. 1, 2021, from owning the company and working there. Alan Rock is retired from working but he remains a co-owner of Rock Oil Refining with Mike Rock and Dave Feemster currently managing the business. The company has a workforce of around 20 employees who are the backbone of the operation. The company presently has a fleet of six collection trucks out picking up used oil, filters and antifreeze from businesses every weekday. Also operating are two tractor trailer combination vehicles used for delivery of the recycled products to customers.

Rock Oil Refining Inc. plans to continuously adapt to changes in the oil recycling business to meet future customer and industry needs.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="493"] This equipment allows Stratford-based Rock Oil Refining to dewater and separate the waste oil as part of the recycling process. Photo by Rock Oil Refining[/caption]
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