U.S. Department of Energy Announces $25 Million to Advance the U.S. Aquaculture Industry for Biomass Production in the Deep Ocean Concept Paper Submission DEADLINE February 13, 2025

(U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)) Program aims to establish a U.S.-led offshore seaweed biomass industry capable of contributing to energy, agriculture, and industrial markets -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 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.

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. READ MORE

The Harnessing Autonomy for Energy Joint ventures Offshore (HAEJO) program will support the development of technical solutions to reduce the cost of seaweed biomass cultivation by a factor of four when scaled, from the low thousands today to $120-275 per Dry Metric Ton (DMT, 10% moisture) depending on the cultivated species. The program will also develop energy-centric, million-ton-scale markets in the United States, focusing on agricultural biostimulants that support the reduction of synthetic fertilizer use in the row crop industry and the utilization of carbon from seaweed biomass.

1. The development of new sensors and models to enable real-time, remote, and persistent understanding of farm state offshore;

2. Engineering solutions to enable offshore scale including hardware and control systems to enable the crop to periodically access deep water nutrients, and methods of dewatering harvests at sea to improve the economics of biomass transport and extend shelf life; and

3. The discovery of biostimulant mechanisms and investigation of their applicability to bioenergy row crops as a direct product line, and other new, innovative approaches such as carbon removal that harness embodied carbon and other components of seaweed to address U.S. energy needs.

HAEJO aims to engage technology developers from a broad range of backgrounds including optical, acoustic, electromagnetic, and chemical sensors, data-driven modeling, marine engineering and materials, moisture harvesting and hydrophilic/hydrophobic materials and processes, biostimulant analysis and terrestrial agriculture sciences. HAEJO also targets seaweed cultivation groups, processors and market developers.

Eligible recipients include U.S.-based lead organizations capable of achieving technical success in meeting or exceeding the metrics stated in this NOFO. Collaboration with Korean entities to leverage experience in scaled seaweed cultivation research and implementation is strongly encouraged