CALGARY, April 11, 2018 /CNW/ - Acceleware Ltd.
(TSX-V: AXE) ("Acceleware") today announced that the US Patent and
Trademark Office has granted Patent No. 9,938,809 ("Patent")
relating to radio frequency ("RF") heating of heavy oil and oil
sands reservoirs. The Patent is a key part of Acceleware's growing
base of intellectual property and covers the core elements of its
Modular RF technology, as well as claims relating to its RF XL
technology. Modular RF is targeted for commercial availability in
2022, while RF XL is expected to be available in 2020.
The Patent is one of a series of six patent applications filed
by Acceleware pertaining to Modular RF and RF XL, both of which
have been created to address technology barriers that have
prevented the commercial success of RF heating for heavy oil and
oil sands. The Modular RF system will be suited to vertical
deployments at any depth from near surface to more than
1000m deep, while RF XL is targeted
for horizontal deployment at depths from near-surface to
approximately 1000m. RF XL will be
paired with horizontal or vertical producer wells, enabling broad
applicability to a wide range of reservoir types. Both Modular RF
and RF XL will scale to very long production systems of
1000m and more.
Acceleware has specifically designed their solutions to provide
unparalleled efficiency in delivering heat to an oil bearing
formation, while ensuring that they are able to withstand unique
and challenging deployment and operating conditions inherent to
heavy oil and oil sands production. Acceleware believes these
patented technologies will usher in a new era of flexible and
high-efficiency RF heating. The company is currently preparing
additional patent applications for filing in 2018.
The Patent consists of 29 claims related to the distributed
operation of the Modular RF technology where multiple RF generators
are integrated into a pipe string downhole. The modular nature of
the technology will allow operators to create a heating system of
any length from 10m to over
1000m long by connecting multiple
10m sections together. This system
will be able to provide spatial and temporal control over the
heating pattern in the reservoir, allowing operators to avoid hot
spots and optimize production effectively from the surface. The
technology will scale easily in length and power at low cost and
will offer very low losses in delivering power to the formation,
making it suitable for deployments at depths of 1000m or greater. The elements of the Patent
which are relevant to RF XL include scalability and the ability to
operate without chokes, which will increase efficiency.
Acceleware continues to further develop both the Modular RF and
RF XL technology platforms and extend the base of intellectual
property surrounding each. Research and development work continues
to focus on increasing efficiency and reach, allowing for oil
production from a wider range of resources.
The patented Modular RF and RF XL heating technologies have the
potential to save significant oil production costs by reducing both
capital and operating costs. Both platforms will offer immediate
and significant improvements in water and land use, will completely
eliminate tailings ponds, and will not require the use of solvents.
As an electrically driven process, Acceleware believes that RF
heating will eventually provide a clear pathway to zero GHG
emissions production of heavy oil and oil sands.
About Acceleware
Acceleware (www.acceleware.com) develops high performance
seismic imaging and modeling software products and provides
innovative technology for radio frequency (RF) heating, an emerging
thermal enhanced oil recovery method. As experts in programming for
multi-core CPUs and massively parallel GPUs, Acceleware's
professional services team specializes in accelerating
computationally intense applications for clients to speed up
product design, analyze data and help make better business
decisions. Acceleware's products and services are used by
some of the world's largest energy and engineering companies.
Acceleware is a public company on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange under the
trading symbol "AXE".
Disclaimers
This press release contains "forward-looking information"
within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation.
Forward-looking information generally means information about an
issuer's business, capital, or operations that is prospective in
nature, and includes disclosure about the issuer's prospective
financial performance or financial position.
The forward-looking information in this press release can be
identified by terms such as "believes" "expects", "potential",
"targets" and "will", and includes information about the
expectations for future intellectual property development and the
commercial availability of Acceleware's RF heating technologies, as
well as the anticipated benefits of those technologies. Acceleware
assumes that the current research and development effort will
result in future patent filings, and future commercial readiness of
the resulting technologies.
Actual results may vary from the forward-looking information
in this press release due to certain material risk factors. These
risk factors are described in detail in Acceleware's continuous
disclosure documents, which are filed on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com.
Acceleware assumes no obligation to update or revise the
forward-looking information in this press release, unless it is
required to do so under Canadian securities legislation.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a
solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described in
this release in the United States.
The securities have not been and will not be registered under the
United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S.
Securities Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be
offered or sold within the United
States or to U.S. persons unless registered under the U.S.
Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption
from such registration is available.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation
Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the
TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Acceleware Ltd.