Acceleware advances its RF XL heating technology

Acceleware Ltd., a Calgary-based developer of technologies enabling low-cost and environmentally-friendly extraction of heavy oil and bitumen, provides an operational and corporate update on the firm’s recent activities, including the successful completion of a 500kW field test of its prototype Radio Frequency (RF) converter designed in collaboration with GE Research (GE). This converter will be utilized in the company’s commercial-scale test of its patented and patent-pending RF XL Heating technology at a site in the Cold Lake Oil Sands region near the town of Marwayne AB. 

Acceleware continues to de-risk designs for the project and successfully concluded the full power test of two modules of the RF converter prototype, along with certain RF energy transmission components that will comprise the downhole section of the RF XL system. Each converter prototype module is designed to deliver up to 250 kilowatts of RF power, and in the Company’s commercial-scale prototype, eight modules will be combined to deliver a total of two megawatts.

Unprecedented level of RF power

In the lead-up to the full-power field test, Acceleware ran preparatory tests at 250kW and 400kW, culminating in a full 500kW of RF power successfully delivered to the field test antenna system. Acceleware believes the 500kW test represents an unprecedented level of RF power for any field test of an RF heating system designed for heavy oil production. The full-power test of RF converter modules is anticipated to be the final de-risking test prior to the converter’s deployment at the Project.

“This test is significant not only because it sets a new benchmark for the level of power delivered into the ground, but perhaps more so because it has validated that our end-to-end system can operate at full power” said Dr. Michal Okoniewski, chief scientific officer of Acceleware. “By testing two of our modules along with scaled-down RF energy transmission components at full power, we have dramatically increased our confidence that the complete eight module converter will be able to deliver two MW of power, and that our transmission lines can more than handle that power, all at our desired efficiency.”