The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $25 million to develop a U.S.-led, million-ton-scale biomass-to-energy products industry using seaweed cultivation in the deep ocean.
Biomass is a component of numerous sustainable fuels including shipping fuels such as biodiesel and green methanol as well as in sustainable aviation fuel. Sustainable fuels can cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 90%.
The D.O.E. notes that an ocean-based seaweed biomass cultivation industry capitalizes on the fact that, with recent Extended Continental Shelf claims, the U.S. now holds the world’s largest maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Harnessing Autonomy for Energy Joint ventures Offshore (HAEJO) program aims to expand deep-water seaweed cultivation, grow maritime industries, and diversify U.S. energy biomass production sources in U.S. waters by partnering with researchers from South Korea, a country with a large seaweed cultivation industry that is limited to serving food markets.
“HAEJO’s offshore seaweed cultivation technologies could unlock new opportunities for the energy sector. They will both reduce the strain on land and freshwater resources and enable a new, domestic, megaton-scale supply source.” said ARPA-E Director Evelyn N. Wang. “Leveraging work efforts in this field from around the world gives HAEJO technologies the potential to accelerate U.S. energy independence, and secure U.S. leadership in ocean industry and technology.”
The HAEJO program will work to overcome challenges in creating an economically viable seaweed industry by developing new sensors for autonomous systems, ocean engineering approaches for supplying nutrients offshore and efficiently dewatering harvested biomass, and market-enabling technologies for deep-water seaweed cultivation. Through HAEJO, projects will involve technical partnerships with South Korean experts in seaweed cultivation to accelerate U.S. industry development. Technologies are intended to reduce the cost of seaweed cultivation by a factor of four, develop energy-centric seaweed markets in the U.S., and increase the scale of domestic seaweed cultivation market by at least three orders of magnitude.
