As the demand for critical minerals rises, it has become increasingly important to the United States to secure domestic critical materials supply chains to bolster our national security and ensure America leads the world in the emerging clean energy economy. To meet this demand, ARPA-E has investigated innovative, novel ways to acquire critical minerals domestically, such as phytomining.

This spring, ARPA-E awardee University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) set out to study critical minerals accumulating in wild seaweed in a remote corner of Alaska.

The demand for critical minerals required to decarbonize energy technologies is outpacing supply, inspiring new research into novel ways to acquire valuable minerals. One transformative research area is using the natural hyperaccumulating ability of seaweed to naturally concentrate rare earth elements from seawater.