RE:Microwaves currently used in the Mining Industry Whampoa, as I reflect on what has been happening here over the last couple of years,
we got really excited with Axe finally beginning to start their RF XL commercial-scale pilot
project. It was all about this revolutionary, game-changing clean tech process of actually microwaving bitumen/oil out of the oil sands without using steam or solvents.
However, it wasn't that obvious then to us (to me anyway) that another highly innovative technology would also eventually evolve out of the overall process and would be able to
beat it's own drum and make it's own way with added attributes, benefits and applications
in the fields of Industrial Heating, Bulk Solids /Crop Drying etc...and Hydrogen.
This would be the amazing CTI system. So, in spite of us all still patiently waiting for the
Marwayne pilot to successfully get to the finish line and with the delays in the process,
Axe meantime, has developed another piece of proven, proprietary tech that came out it.
You could say, kind of a 'Two for the price of One deal' with added bonuses also of being
able to get into the growing Hydrogen field and with a collaborative partner already.
For a better understanding for anyone new or, people needing a refresher would need to
go to their website link to see the range of applications and continuing areas where their
CTI tech expertise can be used:
https://www.acceleware.com/cti/cti-applications.html#cti-industrialheat And just for another stroll down memory lane of how Acceleware actuall got started in the
oil sands industry with their smart high speed tech software etc., and a reminder of who's
mainly been behind the brilliance of all this technology, you could revisit a piece that the
CalgaryJournal did a couple of years ago on Michal Okoniewski the chief scientific officer
and co-founder of Acceleware:
https://calgaryjournal.ca/2021/04/07/u-of-c-scientist-studies-how-radio-waves-could-be-harnessed-for-clean-oil-extraction
The above article is a bit long but worth the read for anyone new to AXE and was published
originally in April 2021. I find it really interesting even then, how he was still thinking well
ahead ...check out the end of the article when it says:
'Okoniewski also imagines the possibility of an even cleaner future.
“I think that oil is going to be used for quite some time, not just as an energy source but
also the raw materials. But just imagine, and this is not what we’re working on immediately,
but imagine that instead of producing oil, you could actually produce hydrogen in the future,” Okoniewski says.
“If you could find an interesting way of producing hydrogen in the future or, you know, in a
way in which you don’t produce carbon on the surface, that leaves the carbon underground.
That is a phenomenal future, and it will likely require technology like ours.”
Okoniewski predicts that, in addition to scaling up RF XL production, Acceleware will also
be doing a lot of research into using hydrogen as renewable energy in the coming future.'
Next month will be 2 years since that article and in my opinion, inspite of delays with the pilot,
some of which was Covid related and two Alberta winters etc. etc., I believe the Acceleware
team has stayed the course very well to eventually reach the end game soon. But, have also
been busy with their research and connections, continually working to expand their product technology together with their many patents, to meet much broader markets moving forward.