When Aaron Oil Company, Inc., (Aaron Oil) was founded in Mobile, Alabama in 1981, it embodied the definition of a startup business and had one truck and one driver.  Since then, Aaron Oil has expanded by leaps and bounds and now has a fleet of nearly 70 trucks.

Dan Cowart, President and CEO, leads a team of 118 employees and says that Aaron Oil, which made the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Companies for the third consecutive year, remembers humble beginnings in this business while maintaining growth and carving a niche into an area of the oil industry that other companies often pass over.

“We believe that about 50 or 60 percent of the oil regulated today is not going to meet the specifications to be allowed to enter the re-refineries,” Cowart says. “So our focus is on addressing those streams and the challenges related to processing them. There are plenty of companies out there focused on re-refining used oil but we are focused on the more challenging problem, like oils that are difficult to process and meet the used oil regulatory definition but are not suitable to be oriented.”

A large portion of the industry’s new technology concentrates on waste water processing and more effective oil processing methods, which Cowart says, will reduce sulfur in fuels and produce better oil products for the marketplace.

In addition to cutting-edge technology development, Aaron Oil is compliant with regulatory management and employs a diverse team to analyze trends in the industry.

“Aaron Oil has a range of engineers, including mechanical and chemical engineers. We have an excellent team to analyze technology and continue to make recommendations for improvement,” Cowart says.

CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT

By continuing to invest heavily in research and development, Aaron Oil is able to vary its approaches to challenges related to processing and breaking up emulsions.

Aaron Oil has its own research and development laboratory where tests are performed on everything from microwave technology to liquid CO2. With four different proprietary processes, Aaron Oil can process used motor and industrial oils with the proper attention given to each unique process.

Currently, Aaron Oil is the only oil recycler certified under ISO 14001 standards, which measure environmental management, and ISO 18001 standards, which measure health and safety practices.

The company is audited on a quarterly basis and constantly reviews training programs and operating procedures in order to implement safer and better processes.

“The whole concept of ISO 14000 is continuous improvement,” says Cowart. “When you’re certified under these standards, you have to abide by them. We call them ‘living, breathing standards’ because these standards are changed and upgraded on a continuous forward.”