MARINER Expanding Agriculture into the Ocean Marc von Keitz, Ph.D.

Transcription

1 MARINER Expanding Agriculture into the Ocean Marc von Keitz, Ph.D. ARPA-E Program Director

2 Oceans are the largest untapped growth opportunity for biomass 70% of world s surface Water Nutrients December 5, 2017 Insert Presentation Name 1

3 U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is equivalent to the total U.S. land area US Area (USDA 2006) Sq km Total Land Area 9,158,022 Grassland 2,370,000 Forestry 2,640,000 Cropland 1,786,000 Exclusive Economic Zone (offshore) 11,351,000 2

4 Macroalgae (aka seaweed) the quintessential ocean crop Global Algae Production, % Macro- (meter scale) 98% Micro- (µm scale) Kappaphycus Laminaria Gracilaria Amenable to cultivation & harvest Mostly carbohydrate & protein Many different species Fast growth rate 3

5 Macroalgae can be more efficient than corn Plant Type Photosynthetic Efficiency Yield (metric ton, dry per hectare) Recoverable Carbon Nitrogen Embedded Energy #2 Corn 4-6 max % ~50% 2 >50% 3 Macrocystis (Giant kelp) 4-10 max % >95% 0% 1 Borak et al. Curr Opin Biotechnol Jun;24(3): Based on average U.S. corn grain yield 168 bushels per acre and harvesting all grain and max 50% of above ground biomass (NASS Quick Stats) Energy Balance Corn Ethanol Industry, USDA 4 Fernandez et al. Photosynthesis Research : Alejandro Buschmann, Macrocystis production and conversion in Chile 4

6 Macroalgae is already a growing industry Global macroalgae biomass production Global macroalgae biomass production MMtons, wet MMton, wet China Indonesia Philippines Republic of Korea Japan Malaysia Zanzibar Solomon Islands Rest of World 5

7 still, macroalgae production has changed little over the centuries Laminaria farm China Kappaphycus sp. cooperative farms Xincun, China 6

8 Food and hydrocolloids drive current demand > $6-8 billion dollar industry 7

9 ARPA-E wants to expand into biomass energy High Suitability High + Med Potential million metric tons, wet Ethanol, million GGE Quads Ethanol, million GGE Quads Brown 1,400 9, , Red 2,000 14, , Total 3,400 23, , ARPA-E collaborated closely with Lux Research in a modeling effort designed to accurately model the per country EEZ macroalgae production potential 8

10 Any pathway to fuels scale will likely go through animal feed market 9

11 seaweeds also appear to reduce bovine methane emissions Source: EPA,

12 Key requirements for macroalgae energy farms Accessing free nutrients predictably and reliably Expanding beyond the inter-tidal zone into deeper, offshore waters Energy-efficient harvesting & transport High productivity of individual plants and the whole system Photo: Erik K Veland 11

13 Majority of energy for corn production is tied up in NH Total Energy Requirements Corn Production BTU/Bu corn December 5, 2017 Insert Presentation Name 12

14 Macroalgal Nutrient Supply Technologies Nutrient availability is key factor in siting future farms and assessing maximum size Natural upwelling Coastal and river discharge (dead-zones) Deep water nutrients either by Active pumping Dipping Modelling of nutrient flow/uptake through the farm is going to be critical to arrive at suitable designs December 5, 2017 Insert Presentation Name 13

15 MARINER is focused on scalable, cost-competitive,and sustainable biomass production Scalable to hundreds of millions of tons of dry biomass Cost-competitive with terrestrial biomass Energy return at least as high as for cellulosic biomass December 5,

16 Sept. 2017: ~$22 Million for 18 MARINER projects Oregon California Washington Nevada Idaho Utah Team Leads University: 7 Small Business: 5 Montana Wyoming Colorado North Dakota Not-for-profit: 4 National Lab: South Dakota Nebraska Kansas Minnesota Iowa Wisconsin 1513 Illinois Michigan Indiana Ohio West Virginia New Hampshire 1516 New York Pennsylvania Maine Connecticut New Jersey Massachusetts Delaware Washington D.C Rhode 1516Island Alaska z Arizona Hawaii 1522 New Mexico Texas Oklahoma Texas Tennessee Arkansas Alabama Georgia Mississippi Louisiana 1526 Louisiana 1517 Florida Florida 1517 Prime Sub 1575 US Virgin Islands 1506 Puerto Rico *for clarity, only a sub-set of Sub locations is shown 16

17 Visited all 18 teams by end of October December 5,

18 9 Integrated Cultivation and Harvesting Systems with diverse approaches and regions (Cat 1) Regional Distribution NE: 3 Gulf: 3 Carib: 1 NW: 1 AK: 1 CA: 1 HI: 1 Red: Red algae; Green: brown algae

19 9 Components & Tools Projects Cat 2: Advanced Component Technologies Cat 3: Computational Modeling Tools C.A. Goudey & Associates Cat 4: Advanced Monitoring Tools Cat 5: Advanced Breeding and Genetic Tools

20 ARPA-E is closely collaborating with NOAA Mariculture Spatial Atlases will become a public resource with a world wide web interface December 5,

21 MARINER program in a nut shell 3

22 Thank you!