The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $25 million to develop a U.S.-led marine energy hydrocarbon and industrial commodity supply through the deep-water cultivation of seaweed biomass at million-ton scale for a wide variety of energy products. An ocean-based cultivation industry capitalizes on a unique but underutilized U.S. advantage: 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.

Visit the ARPA-E eXCHANGE website for more information about HAEJO, including key guidelines and the program description.

ARPA-E is the disruption wing of the DOE that funds and directs the discovery of outlier energy technologies that are strategic to America's energy security. Learn more about these efforts and ARPA-E's commitment to ensuring American-made energy for all through U.S. leadership in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.