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BIDDEFORD, Maine

U.S. Department of Energy awards ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ $1,321,039 to develop new technologies for seaweed production

ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ receives Department of Energy grant for new technologies for seaweed production

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ was awarded a three-year, nationally competitive research grant for $1,321,039 from DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). DOE awardees are part of a new program called β€œMacroalgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Resources (MARINER)” that aims to develop the tools to enable the United States to become a leading producer of macroalgae, or seaweed, to help improve U.S. energy security and economic competitiveness. Macroalgae can be utilized as a feedstock for domestic transportation fuels, chemicals, foods and other commercial products without competing with food crops for land and water.

β€œThis award will support ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s network of eager, young scientists and entrepreneurs in all of our marine programs,” said President James Herbert, Ph.D. β€œWith the help of this funding from the Department of Energy, our students will be part of a movement to pioneer the next generation of marine products.” 

The ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ team will develop a high level, fine-tuned 3D modeling tool to simulate hydrodynamic-induced mechanical stresses that seaweed farms face in the open ocean. They will use their modeling expertise to determine the structural performance of new and existing farm designs in the Gulf of Maine. Their model will be capable of simulating hectare-sized farms, which would speed up the engineering, testing and permitting process for new, large scale, seaweed farming systems. They will expand ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s experimental seaweed farm from its current small size off Wood Island to four acres in Saco Bay, Maine.

β€œWith this grant, ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ will become a center of expertise, practice, and partnerships for developing Maine’s seaweed and sea vegetable economy offshore,” said Professor Barry Costa-Pierce, Ph.D., director of ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s Center for Excellence in the Marine Sciences. β€œDOE’s investment in ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ will support partnerships with researchers and businesses in nations throughout the Atlantic Ocean, developing Maine as a global leader in research and development in aquaculture, especially in the expanding seaweed bioproducts and food economies.” 

This will be a three-year project in partnership with Professor David Fredriksson, Ph.D., of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, who is a co-principal investigator (PI) on the grant. Institutional partner scientists will be Andrew Drach, Ph.D., of the Callentis Consulting Group in Austin, Texas and Tobias Dewhurst, Ph.D., of Maine Marine Composites in Portland, Maine. Adam St. Gelais of ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ will serve as project manager. Over the past three years, ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ and USNA have built a close research relationship under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), and this award is a result of that partnership. 

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To learn more about the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s Department of Marine Sciences visit

To learn more about the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s Center for Excellence in Marine Sciences, visit

To apply, visit 

 

 

About the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ

The ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.