OCC Finalist Spotlight – Meet SmartDry Dredging!

We are excited to introduce one of the finalists of the 2025 Ocean Community Challenge: SmartDry Dredging!

Based in Portugal, this innovative start-up is transforming the dredging industry by recovering valuable resources, like clean sand, metals, and organic matter, from what is typically treated as waste. Their solution turns a traditionally polluting process into one that removes contaminants and supports the circular economy.

Let’s take a closer look at how this circular innovation works! ♻️💡

As demand for coastal infrastructure and shipping access grows, dredging, the removal of sediment from rivers, harbors, and ocean floors, has become increasingly vital. However, conventional methods produce waterlogged material that’s heavy, expensive to transport, and emissions-intensive. Worse still, this material often contains recoverable metals like copper, zinc, iron, and lead, the result of industrial, agricultural, and urban runoff. Yet instead of being reused, it's typically dumped in landfills or the ocean, polluting ecosystems and wasting valuable resources.

SmartDry Dredging offers a multi-step solution designed to cut emissions and unlock the value hidden in dredged material. First, a suction and dewatering system reduces water content at the source, significantly lowering transport weight and emissions. Then, the dried material is processed through liquefaction-based mining, allowing efficient separation and recovery of clean sand, metals, and organic matter.

To put the potential into perspective: just one megatonne of dredged material from the Port of Santos in Lisbon could be worth over $9 million. That’s a strong business case, paired with clear environmental urgency. Instead of contaminating the seafloor with dumped sludge, SmartDry Dredging’s approach eliminates sea disposal, reduces pressure on land-based sand mining, and minimizes ecological harm.

We are proud to support SmartDry Dredging and excited to join them on their mission to revolutionize dredging by turning waste into valuable resources and promoting more circular use of our marine environments. 🌊🚢♻️