I’ll try and explain my view on BOS’s biocide competitiveness. Firstly, I’m upfront in saying I know almost nothing about biocides and have only a layman’s view on the announcement by BOS last Friday. I have browsed some info on the web to try and understand and value their bench trial results.
BOS compounds “compare well with biocides currently used in the oil an gas industry”. At best I take this as being equivalent. To be competitive BOS would need to offer something better than established products.
Traditional biocides are effective against a range of bacteria, BOS compounds seem to be bacteria specific and we have comparable efficacy against only one bacteria at the moment. Traditional biocides are also very cheap, cheaper than BOS I’d expect, though this hasn’t been specifically addressed in announcements.
While traditional biocides are toxic, they do break down in the environment, and their effects are well-studied. BOS may have to prove their compound’s environmental credentials. If the compound is closely structured to a known, safe compound this may not be a problem.
I guess there would be many other factors, such as: stability in storage; effectiveness over temperature ranges; effectiveness in the transported medium [oil, fresh/salt water, etc]; effect in downstream oil usage; and so on.
Two characteristics that I am hoping will be achieved to differentiate BOS as a better product are: proven non-toxic in the environment, and being able to disperse well-established biofilms using low concentrations of compound.
Two of the documents I read are:
Specialty Chemicals by BASF : Water and oilfield biocides / BASF Biocides 1.3 mb
