Case Study: How Apex Automotive Cut Cooling Tower Costs by 50% with Ionic CED

The Challenge: Uncontrolled Costs in a Critical System

For a major automotive manufacturer like Apex Automotive, the plant's cooling towers are mission-critical. However, relying on the fluctuating quality of river water for their cooling tower makeup was leading to significant operational challenges. The high and variable Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the water caused severe scaling and corrosion, forcing them into a costly cycle of high chemical dosage and frequent "blowdown" (discharging water to reduce TDS).

They evaluated traditional Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems but rejected them due to high operational costs, high energy consumption, and significant water wastage—a critical issue in a water-scarce region.

The Solution: High-Recovery, Chemical-Free Desalination

Apex Automotive selected Ionic's Capacitive Electro Desalination (CED) system. The decision was based on CED's unique ability to handle fluctuating feed water quality with minimal pre-treatment while achieving high water recovery without the use of any chemicals.

Our team installed a CED system to treat the river water before it entered the cooling tower. The system's "tunable" performance was set to a fixed ion removal rate, ensuring that the water quality consistently met the cooling tower manufacturer's requirements, regardless of seasonal changes in the river water.

Proven Results: A 50% Reduction in Operational Costs

The impact was immediate and substantial. Despite the river's conductivity varying wildly (from 400 to 1400 µS/cm), the Ionic CED system delivered consistently high-quality water.

The installation of the Ionic CED system directly led to:

By enabling the use of a water source previously deemed unfit, Ionic's CED technology not only solved Apex Automotive's scaling and corrosion issues but also significantly improved their operational efficiency and environmental footprint.