[1]: 47–53  After his arrival in the United States, he became a lab assistant to John Michael Maisch at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

[3] Once Frasch's completed his work on the refinery in February 1885, he resigned and joined Imperial board member John Minhinnick in founding the Empire Oil Company.

[4] The partners purchased a refinery in London, and Frasch began experimenting on a way to remove the sulfur in kerosene refined from Petrolia oil.

[4] The oil fields in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada had a high sulfur content, resulting in the kerosene producing excessive smoke and a pungent smell when burned.

[5] Canadians nicknamed the kerosene "skunk oil," and refiners had a difficult time marketing their products at home and abroad.

[5] Between 1885 and 1887 Frasch determined that mixing copper oxide during the distillation process removed the sulfur content from the oil.

[7] Once Frasch returned to the United States, he began working for the Solar Refining Company, a Standard Oil subsidiary in Lima, Ohio, and perfected his desulfurization method.

[7] Standard Oil held a patent monopoly on the desulfurization method until 1905, making its investments into the Lima oilfields extremely profitable for the company.

Frasch concluded the sulfur was associated with a dome structure located on an island owned by the American Sulphur Company.

Water, from the surrounding swamp, was heated in a 20 feet high cylinder 30 inches in diameter, from steam supplied by 4 boilers.

The superheated water was poured into the well for 24 hours, and on Christmas Day, melted sulfur was pumped to the surface filling 40 barrels in 15 minutes.

[2]: 53, 61, 96–97 In 1908, Frasch entered into an agreement with the Italian Government dividing the world market outside the U.S., where Union Sulphur Company was guaranteed one-third.