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Any company that can get a firm grip on recycling something – especially when it comes to used oil products – has our full admiration and support going forward.

SouthEastern Petroleum Systems will be opening a new manufacturing facility over in Chester County. Their $30 million investment is expected to bring 24 new jobs to SC, which is great news for that area, but it also suggests that someone has finally figured out a business plan for recycling used oil – I mean, $30 million is no pocket change, I don’t care who you are!

Back in the 90′s, if you lived here, you may remember a company that got a lot of press at the time – both good and bad. It was Green Oasis Environmental, a start up company here off Long Point Rd. I happened to work for. The owner – I mean swindler – was William ‘Bill’ Carraway: a grey-haired, sports car driving, wanna-be that wound up coaxing my uncle’s retirement property right out from under him in what came to be GOE’s original headquarters (next to the newly built Sealand gate of the SPA Wando terminal – in other words: lucrative industrial property).

Bill Carraway’s idea, commonly referred to as cracking waste oil, was great – actually, it wasn’t his idea: he bought a table-top mockup from somebody in Florida and then my uncle Joe rescaled it to real-world size – but to sum up the process:

1. accumulate recycled oil and various other petroleum products,
2. store it in a tank farm,
3. pipe it into a 40′ container (marketed for mobile, but it wasn’t really),
4. heat it in a boiler,
5. evaporate it up into a distillation column,
6. extract your fuel of choice (ASTM #2 off-road diesel fuel here), and finally,
7. pipe it into a product tank for storage before sale and/or use on site.

If it weren’t for the fact that he made no friends at DHEC or the high dollar neighborhoods across the street because of foul emissions coming from GOE, it might’ve had a chance. But in the end, the few firm sales (in Bulgaria and somewhere else I can’t remember right now) weren’t enough to keep Bill out of court with complaints from neighbors and investors.

To be clear, I have no reason to believe SouthEastern Petroleum Systems management is anything like Bill Carraway was, and like I said, I wish them all the best. I’d love to hear more stories of recycling in South Carolina taking off.

It’s great to know up front from our Commerce Dept. that SEPS’ $30 million oil recycling plant is for real. As many Pink Sheet companies go, be wary when you hear silver-tongued publicity noise like Green Oasis put out. Here’s the marketing statement GOE had back then:

About Green Oasis Environmental Inc.

Founded in 1991, Green Oasis Environmental Inc. is a publicly traded company (OTC Bulletin Board: GRNO.PK) which designs, develops, and manufactures fully computerized units which contain the Company’s proprietary EnviroEconomics(R) System, a fully patented waste oil distillation process which converts waste oil into marketable fuel products such as #2 diesel oil and heating oil in a one-step process of thermal cracking and distillation, techniques which are well-known in the refining industry. The EnviroEconomics(R) System can be located on less than a one acre site and the Company offers a choice of output capacities which comply with EPA and other related governmental regulations. Applications for the company’s end products are primarily industrial, including process heating systems, rail, marine, farm usage, and over-the-road vehicles (cars, buses, and trucks). The Company’s proprietary technology was independently selected by a United Nations committee and showcased in a book published in 1995 identifying new proprietary technologies which developing countries could use to protect their environments. GOE markets its technology directly and through Agency relationships and strategic alliances.

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