Fairmount Water Solutions Introduces Macrolite Engineered Ceramic Media At ACE10

Fairmount Water Solutions is introducing an ultra-performance filtration material proven to increase capacity and deliver tighter filtration without new facility construction at the 2010 American Water Works Association Annual Conference & Exposition this week in Chicago.

Ohio-based Fairmount Water Solutions recently acquired the license for Macrolite Engineered Ceramic Media, a ceramic filtration material proven to outperform alternatives in dozens of municipal and industrial gravity-filtration systems. The media was developed by Kinetico Incorporated, a leading manufacturer of water treatment systems.

Retrofitting an existing gravity filter with Macrolite ceramic filtration media has been proven to deliver valuable improvements in efficiency and performance such as finer particulate filtration, greater capacity, reduced effluent turbidity and increased flow rates.

"You can achieve higher flow rates than sand or anthracite and remove particles more effectively without having to expand bed size or make any other significant new investments in infrastructure," said Dave chew, Director of Sales and Marketing for Fairmount Water Solutions. "With our industry facing tighter and tighter budgets, new facility construction to meet increased demand or satisfy quality issues is a very tough case to make. A media such as Macrolite means that you can make needed improvements without those costly investments."

Compared to aggregates, Macrolite ceramic spheres exhibit extraordinarily high surface area combined with uniform composition, shape, size, sphericity and density. According to Chew, Macrolite media has been field proven to boost flow rates to 10 gpm/ft². Its superior uniformity, combined with a surface composition that promotes colloidal attachment, results in a media that can filter down to the 3 micron level; significantly lower than a conventional aggregate bed. It also forms a critical barrier to cyst contaminants such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, removing significantly more cyst-based media than other conventional aggregate-media.

In new bed installations, Macrolite allows users to minimize bed size, reduce equipment footprint and lower capital costs. Backwash energy requirements are also lower than those of conventional filtration.

With proper engineering and pilot testing, these potential benefits can be determined and ensured before any investment is made in a new filtration media, Chew said.

"We use on-site piloting to help water system managers evaluate the performance of our media and determine whether it meets a facility's goals for water quality and efficiency," said Chew. "Considering the critical challenges our customers are using Macrolite media to address, we can't leave performance to chance."

The Fairmount Water Solutions on-site piloting system can easily integrate into plant operations, allowing real-time studies of key parameters such as turbidity reduction, flux, filter run-time, backwash efficiency, and effluent quality. Chew said that on-site piloting is encouraged before making any investment in filtration media, regardless of whether they are considering ceramic or aggregates.

A subsidiary of Fairmount Minerals Ltd., Fairmount Water Solutions is a new company focused on improving the performance of engineered media in filtration services for surface water, ground water, and municipal and industrial waste water. Launched earlier this year, the company also supplies sand and gravel filtration media for municipal and industrial water filtration.

Fairmount Water Solutions will be exhibiting its full portfolio of municipal water filtration media and engineered services at ACE10 in Booth 560. For more information about Fairmount Water Solutions and its Macrolite product, please refer to the company's web site at www.fmwater.com or call customer service at (800) 237-4986.

About Fairmount Minerals Ltd.
Fairmount Minerals Ltd., headquartered in Chardon, Ohio, is one of the largest producers of industrial sand and coated sand products in the North America. We are committed to consistently and cost effectively meeting customers requirements through the development and marketing of the highest quality silica, lake and bank sand products. Our mission is to deliver solutions while working to ensure the preservation of the environment and the responsible use of our natural resources.

Fairmount place great emphasis on its global responsibilities and strives to exceed Sustainable Development practices and expectations set out by the UN Global Compact. Our Sustainable Development Principles: Meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. Fairmount strives to exceed standard practices and expectations in ensuring that our actions consider the impact on each of the 3 pillars of sustainability: People, Planet, and Prosperity.

People – Our Social Responsibility is to our employees, their families and to our communities.

Planet - Our Environmental Stewardship must ensure the preservation of our environment and the responsible use of our natural resources.

Prosperity - Economic Prosperity for our company and for all of our stakeholders.

Subsidiary list: Best Sand Corporation, Fairmount Water Solutions, Lakeshore Sand Company, Mineral Visions Incorporated, Santrol, Technisand Incorporated, Wedron Silica Company, Wexford Sand Company, Wisconsin Industrial Sand Company.

SOURCE: Fairmount Minerals Ltd.