Chuck Fowler is a modern day Sandman. But unlike the mythical character who brought good dreams to children, Fowler heads a company that is one of the largest producers of industrial sand in the nation.
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View full sizeChuck Fowler is the CEO of Fairmount Minerals, one of the nation's largest producers of specialized industrial sand used in everything from windshields to water filtration to hydraulic fracturing of shale for oil and gas. Chuck Fowler is a champion of sustainable business principles - an advocate of the gospel that treating people and the planet with respect is not only good but actually profitable.
Fowler was one of the original organizers of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's Sustainable Cleveland 2019 campaign, a one-of-a kind, 10-year effort to reinvent the region's economy by incorporating sustainability in business and everyday life.
If you drink a glass of water produced by the Cleveland Division of Water, Fowler has entered your life. So, too, has he entered the lives of Saudi Arabians, who do not take clean water for granted.
Fowler is with you pretty much every time you drive or ride in a car. If you play golf, Fowler is sometimes with you. And if you have gone to an Indians or Browns game in Cleveland, Fowler was there.
And finally, if you use natural gas, Fowler is definitely with you because he has made it possible for a drilling company to produce that gas.
Fowler is the chief executive officer of Fairmount Minerals, a mining company, with headquarters in Chardon and 26 operations around the world.
Its products are just as crucial to hydraulic fracturing as they are to water treatment, windshield glass making, engine block casting and, of course, the construction of golf course sand traps, where not just any old sand can be used.
Nature did not create all sands with equal properties. And Fairmount is a provider of very special sands, very clean sands that really are part of the foundation of modern life.
In 2011, this privately owned company produced and shipped more than 3.4 million tons of sand, employed nearly 800 and had revenues in excess of $900 million.
The company expects continued growth, especially because of shale fracturing. Today, that industry is Fairmount's largest customer.
Fowler recently talked about his company and his philosophy of life. sustainable business principles - the gospel that treating people and the planet with respect is not only good but actually profitable.
Here are excerpts of his comments.
It may not be the most important question, but do you really ship sand to Saudi Arabia? And why, since that country has so much sand already?
Yes, we do. For water filtration. The Saudis do a lot of pre-filtering of water before they put it though their desalination process. Their sand is the wrong size and shape. They've got a lot of it, but it's the wrong stuff.
Do you ship sand to any other countries for water filtration?
I think we ship sand for water filtration to more than 25 countries. We've been in water filtration from the beginning. And we do supply Cleveland.
Does it all come from Ohio?
Yes. And a lot of it from Chardon. It is the best water filtration sand in the world, primarily because of the angularity and the shapes and size of the grains. Chardon sand is high-purity silica sand. I can say that with some confidence.
Duffers might appreciate knowing, what is so different about sand in a golf course sand trap? It's all frustrating. Wouldn't beach sand work just fine.
Well, for the sand trap specifically, the focus is on grain distribution and size of material, and on the angularity of the sand grains.
When you get into a sand trap, you have to say, "Sand is my friend." That will carry you right through it. You want clean sand in a trap, and you want a grain distribution that supports the ball but yet allows the club to go through it. So that you are not hitting a table.
So, Chardon sand, the best in the world for water filtration and sand traps, is also used in fracking?
No. Chardon sands are angular in shape. Rounded sands are particularly advantageous for the "proppant" market, which is the oil gas industry, which uses what is currently termed as fracking sand. But its real purpose of that sand is not fracking. Its purpose is to be a proppant, to prop open the fractures.
That sand must withstand the closure pressure of the earth at 9,000 or 10,000 feet. The earth just wants to close up the fracture. The sand is there to hold it open and still be porous enough, or have enough what we call conductivity, to allow the oil and gas to flow.
Sounds as if these rounded sands have to be extremely strong. Have your people done strength tests? And do you really measure the size of the each grain?
We do that all the time. The size and shape of natural sand varies by geology and exists in a range that does not change much. Those we know pretty well. But we also coat some sand with a resin compound to add strength.
What is the resin in this case?
A typical resin is made from a petroleum product. A typical resin is a phenol or a formaldehyde compound, which is very common. We coat each grain of sand, then cure it (with heat ) so that the result is an inert product.
But it's stronger? You are sure of that? How do you check it? Do you crush it, check it with microscopes?
Yes, we do a lot of microscopic and electronic microscopic photography to make sure the coating is fully around the grain. We also do crush tests.
How strong is this sand? How do you measure its strength in this crush test that you mentioned?
In pounds per square inch. You want a sand that will withstand somewhere between a minimum of about 5,000 psi to a maximum of 12,000 to 14,00 psi. A rule of thumb is that for every foot you go down in into the earth equals about 1 psi. If your well is at 6,000 feet, typically you are going to be looking at 6,000 psi. And you want a sand that will withstand that pressure.
Can you actually deliver sand screened and designed for the depth of the well?
Absolutely we can deliver sand that way.
You said that the oil and gas industry is now your biggest market. Where is that market?
Primarily in U.S. shale areas. But we also supply Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Malaysia. And we supply the North Sea. We are the supplier for the North Sea, from Norway to Great Britain.
What are you other markets?
The primary markets for our high-purity silica sand are glass - we supply windshield glass manufacturers - the foundry industry for engine block casting, and water filtration.
Another place where our sand is used are athletic fields. The Browns and Indians and even those folks in Pittsburgh use our sand with a turf mix. We have to design the turf mix, a blend of soil, sand an other materials so that it will drain 12 inches of water in an hour.
Is sustainability still close to your heart?
Absolutely. A lot of that came from my farming background I grew up on a farm in Brook, Ind., about 70 miles south of Gary, Ind., along the Indiana-Illinois border.
Do you, the company, catch any criticism for supplying fracking sand?
Yes. For many people we can't explain it. We can say that the product we are supply is a pure, inert product that makes the whole system work and is somewhat of a filter.
But the reality is, in their eyes, that we are an enabler, and without our product, gas and oil companies would not be able to produce anything out of the shale. They could still fracture but would not be to produce. And people would not be able to heat their homes.
I think the debate takes getting down to some level common sense.
You are committed to sustainability, yet your company's product goes to the oil and gas industry. Is there a conflict?
Not a conflict at all. We feel that natural gas particularly natural gas is a bridge to technological development of alternative energies. And a bridge that is much more environmentally friendly than coal.