Seagriculture Speaker

About the speaker:

Dan Rogers serves as a Tech-to-Market Advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), where he focuses on transformative, high-impact marine technologies to address our society’s most pressing ocean-related energy and critical resource needs.

Dan brings an extensive background in underwater technology operation, engineering, business development, and strategic partnership building in the marine science and technology field. Dan has supported dozens of deep sea robotic missions across the globe as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) pilot and mechanical engineer and served as the technical lead for many of these missions. This includes working with 6,000 meter-rated ROV systems aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, the premiere platform for federal ocean exploration and technology innovation. In his previous position at the Washington, D.C.-based Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Dan organized and facilitated workshops and strategic convenings involving dozens of partners from across industry, government, and academic institutions, to capitalize on shared priorities and advance community-wide goals for ocean science, data, and technology. This role provided opportunities to support a wide range of industry groups, from nascent start-ups to well-known international companies, who are developing and scaling innovative technologies for marine energy and critical resource applications.

Dan holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Additionally, he holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Environmental Policy from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Company info: 

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. ARPA-E awardees are unique because they are developing entirely new ways to generate, store, and use energy. ARPA-E projects have the potential to radically improve U.S. economic prosperity, national security, and environmental well-being. We focus on transformational energy projects that can be meaningfully advanced over a defined period of time. ARPA-E empowers America's energy researchers with funding, technical assistance, and market readiness. Our rigorous program design, competitive project selection process, and active program management ensure thoughtful expenditures. ARPA-E Program Directors serve for limited terms to ensure a constant infusion of fresh thinking and new perspectives.

Presentation:

The ARPA-E MARINER program has invested more than $62M toward developing the foundations for an offshore macroalgal cultivation industry in the United States. Over the last 3 years, the program has developed new farm designs and cultivation practices that take us closer to scaled offshore biomass growth. As ARPA-E continues to support technological development in this area, our efforts turn toward addressing existing biomass markets and the potential to create new ones that could be served through early-stage technology investments. Here we plan to discuss areas of interest for ARPA-E, especially those that offset emissions and impacts from traditional commodity supply chains.  

Keywords: 

Macroalgae cultivation, supply chains, emissions offsets, valorization, biomass, bioenergy, critical minerals, fertilizer