Bio-Shield: An anti-fouling system for offshore platforms that works!

A major consideration in the design and maintenance of offshore platforms is the growth rate and extent of marine biofouling. Shell Development Company, in response to a request to help provide some design parameters for new platforms in the BETA field offshore Huntington Beach, California, combined existing technologies into a new system to provide a protective anti-fouling sheath for offshore structures. The system has been patented and is now manufactured and marketed by the licensee, Mark Tool Company Inc., as Bio-Shield. A test section of this antifouling copper/nickel sheathing system was placed on an existing offshore Huntington Beach platform to evaluate the effectiveness of the system in addition to laboratory and field installation tests. Following several years of successful field trials, the new Bio-Shield system was applied to sixty drilling well conductors on Shell's new Eureka platform. After more than ten months of exposure, the protected sections were still free of any biofouling growth. The new Shell system appears to be one of the first approaches that can truly inhibit biofouling growth on offshore platforms and, at the same time, provide corrosion protection in the splash zone. The result is considerable savings in both construction and maintenance costs. A field reconnaisance program was also conducted to determine the biofouling growth characteristics on platforms in northern and southern ranges of the Southern California Bight. Data from this study were used to predict growth patterns in the BETA field.