Acceleware Completes Project with Saskatchewan’s International Minerals Innovation Institute – Validates Potential of CTI-Powered Drying

CTI E-house at Acceleware's RF XL Commercial-Scale Pilot Test at Marwayne, AB. July 2023

CALGARY, Alberta (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Acceleware Ltd. (“Acceleware” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: AXE), a leading innovator of transformative technologies targeting the decarbonization of industrial heating, is pleased to announce that it has successfully concluded an Exploring Innovations project with the International Minerals Innovation Institute (IMII), which validated the potential to use radio frequency (RF) energy from Acceleware’s Clean Tech Inverter (CTI) to dry potash and other mineral commodities.

IMII is a non-profit organization jointly funded by industry and government that is committed to developing and implementing innovative education, training, research and development partnerships for supporting a world-class minerals industry. Established in 2012 to support and sustain the Saskatchewan minerals industry, IMII has sponsored more than 50 industry driven projects valued at more than $24 million in its first ten years, and in doing so has leveraged more than $11 million in project funding from outside of its mineral industry and government members.

The IMII is ramping up consideration of new energy-related technologies on behalf of its minerals industry members. With the success of the Exploring Innovations project, IMII has announced that they have invited Acceleware to submit a proposal for subsequent project phases which could lead to the development of a CTI commercial scale drying platform with lower capital and operating costs than fossil fuels, alongside much lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions levels.

“The Acceleware team is very keen to further validate the use of CTI for the drying of potash and other mineral commodities,” said Geoff Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Acceleware. “The electrification of large-scale heating applications such as the drying of potash and other minerals could lend itself well to decarbonization efforts for the sector. We believe that the CTI could not only make material GHG emissions reductions in the mining industry but could improve economics as well. We are excited to prove that out in the next steps with IMII.”

“This project, to date, has taken important steps to understanding and validating the potential that the CTI technology holds as a clean-tech solution for the industry’s heating needs. A CTI commercial-scale drying platform with lower capital and operating costs could present an opportunity for a sustainability win for the minerals industry, reducing energy and improving economics, while lowering GHGs,” said Al Shpyth, IMII’s executive director. “As the minerals industry shifts focus to innovative solutions for a lower environmental footprint, we see economic benefits and sustainability going hand-in-hand in many instances and are actively seeking out those opportunities.”

The patent-pending CTI is unique in its ability to economically decarbonize industrial heating applications even at very large scale. A commercial scale drying platform for mining would augment Acceleware’s portfolio of decarbonization applications. Currently, Acceleware is in final phases of testing at its commercial scale pilot for electrification of heavy oil production via RF XL, the first of several industrial heating applications that Acceleware is commercializing.

Additional work is underway at Acceleware for decarbonization of other heavy emitting industrial heating applications that will play a critical role in a successful energy transition, including agricultural drying and the production of hydrogen via methane pyrolysis.

You can learn more about the CTI here https://www.acceleware.com/cti/technology.html.