Blue Fields addresses the primary challenges to commercializing offshore macroalgae cultivation in tropical environments using neither freshwater, nor land, nor fertilizer. Challenges include the nutrient-limited nature of tropical surface waters; offshore depths rendering fixed grid or multiple point mooring arrays too expensive; and expensive labor for harvesting.
The Blue Fields project is addressing these challenges by: (a) Performing land-based tank trials growing multiple tropical alga species with various Deep Seawater (DSW) and surface seawater inputs to determine nutrient requirements for scalable production; (b) Designing an upwelling system to provide pulsed DSW-nutrients (c) Modeling and designing a macroalgae array that conceptually allows for harnessing current and wind energy for harvesting, and optimizes nutrient dispersal; (d ) Deploying a demonstration system that tests all these subsystems in Hawaii's offshore environment, validating performance in the field.
In addition to offshore commercial macroalgae culture's capitalization opportunities , there are potential ecological benefits to future scaling of such efforts. These include: uptake of atmospheric carbon, reduction of ocean acidification, and the creation of offshore structure/nursery-habitats for marine wildlife . Implementation of this technology in eutrophied marine zones may also provide further benefits to coastal ecosystems, preventing or mitigating the development of "dead zones".
Kampachi Farms is currently permitting the demonstration project offshore of the Big Island, and this presentation will focus on the engineering design, planning, and permit process.