Acceleware Provides Update on Commercialization Plans for Game-Changing Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Oil Sands Technology

CALGARY, March 16, 2016 /CNW/ - Acceleware Ltd. ("Acceleware" or "the Company") (TSX-V:AXE) announced that it intends to commercialize its patent-pending thermal enhanced oil recovery technology using radio frequency energy.  Today's low oil price environment requires oil sands and heavy oil producers to dramatically rethink production techniques to profitably develop their assets. At the same time, the industry is well aware of the need to reduce its environmental impact by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and eliminating external water use. To meet these challenges, Acceleware has developed a new low-cost, low-carbon RF heating technology that uses no external water or steam. The Company has filed two patents related to the technology. Acceleware believes the technology is a compelling alternative to SAGD because it has the potential to significantly reduce capital and operating expenditures, make meaningful reductions in GHG emissions, and eliminate external water use when utilized for oil sands production.

For the past five years Acceleware has worked with several world-class oil and gas companies to investigate, simulate, and design RF heating systems for heavy oil and oil sands production. In the course of this work, the team at Acceleware has become acutely aware of several critical limitations of the use of RF energy to mobilize heavy oil deposits such as the Canadian oil sands:

1. Power transmission losses in deep wells reduce or eliminate cost and energy advantages
2. Existing transmission line technology limits the amount of power that can be delivered to the antenna
3. The systems require the use of complex materials and sophisticated cooling systems
4. Traditional RF generation electronics are cost prohibitive
5. Custom antenna designs and non-standard components significantly increase the cost of deployment and the risk of system failure

For the past two years, Acceleware's research and development focus has been on how to resolve these issues to make RF Heating economically, operationally, and environmentally compelling.  The new technology successfully addresses the above limitations, drastically increasing its efficiency and making it easier to deploy and adopt. The company has successfully tested a proof of concept prototype to validate its performance and potential, and this testing program is on-going. Acceleware is now seeking opportunities to perform large-scale field tests, and has several interested parties.

With growing demand from the industry for lower cost and cleaner methods to produce heavy oil and oil sands, the Company is increasing its efforts to commercialize the new technology.   Mike Tourigny, CMO of Acceleware since January 2014, will now take on the role of VP Commercialization, RF Heating.  Mike will work to position Acceleware as the pioneer and leader in providing low-cost, low-carbon, RF heating solutions.

"We are very excited by the interest our new technology is generating in the industry," said Mike Tourigny. "We believe this technology is one way for the oil industry in general, and Alberta in particular, to develop resources profitably while meeting aggressive targets for emission and water reductions."

For more information on Acceleware's RF heating technology, readers are invited to contact Mike Tourigny, or visit our website (http://www.acceleware.com/rf-heating). For general information on RF heating, download our white paper (http://www.acceleware.com/rf-heating-whitepaper).

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.
Neither 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.

Image with caption: "Acceleware develops high performance seismic imaging and modeling software products and provides innovative technology for radio frequency heating, an emerging thermal enhanced oil recovery method. (CNW Group/Acceleware Ltd.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160316_C3661_PHOTO_EN_644884.jpg

Mike Tourigny, Tel: [phone], [email protected]