todobarro at the university of Lille: decisive progress in the SAFARI Ports project

Over the summer, members of our R&D department traveled to northern France to participate in a scientific-technical workshop at the University of Lille. The goal? To advance the development of an innovative 3D printing technology using dredged sediment—a strategic focus of the European SAFARI Ports project, led by the CRIStAL(1) institute at the University of Lille, which aims to transform these sediments into ecological restoration solutions for port environments.

This activity is part of the work we are carrying out alongside the Seville Port Authority within the SAFARI-BIOECOREST project, where a riverbank stabilization system based on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is being designed. The proposal combines 3D-printed structures made from dredged sediments with revegetated blocks, promoting the gradual recovery of riparian vegetation and protection against waves generated by river traffic.

The circular economy applied to environmental restoration

Every year, ports generate large amounts of sediment from maintenance work on navigation channels. In other words, rivers such as the Guadalquivir must be dredged regularly to maintain their navigability. This reality coexists with another: anthropogenic activity and the climate crisis have eroded and damaged riparian ecosystems, especially those subjected to intensive use, such as the Andalusian riverbanks.

Historically, a significant portion of these organic materials—known as sludge—resulting from river dredging has ended up in landfills, despite being a resource with high potential for reuse. Our work on the SAFARI project proposes a paradigm shift: transforming this dredged sediment into a new temporary construction material through 3D printing, capable of protecting the riverbanks while vegetation naturally reestablishes itself.

Once their purpose is fulfilled, these structures are designed to gradually degrade and integrate into the environment itself, following the “Degrade to Function” approach: a design paradigm in which a material’s degradation is harnessed to intentionally achieve specific goals. In this case, it means that the material disappears as the ecosystem regains its capacity for self-sustainability.

A technical challenge overcome through international collaboration

The main objective of the workshop held in Lille was to address the technical challenges associated with 3D printing using sludge from the Guadalquivir River.

Over the past few months, various tests had highlighted the complexity of the material’s rheological behavior: technical setbacks were encountered that required adapting the 3D printer—which is normally used with cement—to the specific characteristics of the clays dredged from the Guadalquivir.

Over the course of three intensive days of work, our R&D department collaborated with researchers from the University of Lille to optimize both the material formulation and the printing process itself, drawing on published scientific advances in the field of nature-inspired research.

Following an experimental campaign in which different formulations were evaluated, the team succeeded in identifying a composition capable of ensuring proper performance during printing, successfully completing the first full prints of the planned structures.

This result represents a significant advance in the project’s technological maturity, as it overcomes the main bottleneck identified to date and paves the way for the next phases of experimental validation.

Next steps

Once the feasibility of the printing process has been demonstrated, work will continue with characterizing the behavior of the parts during drying, studying their mechanical strength, evaluating their behavior in an aquatic environment, and assessing their biocompatibility—all of which are fundamental aspects for their future implementation along the banks of the Guadalquivir River.

These advances will bring us closer to an innovative solution that combines the circular economy, additive manufacturing, robotics, and ecological restoration, proving how waste generated by port operations themselves can be transformed into tools to improve the resilience of ecosystems.

Collaborative innovation for more sustainable ports

todobarro’s participation in these workshops reinforces the role of the R&D department as a driver of eco-innovation solutions applied to environmental restoration and strengthens international scientific collaboration with the University of Lille and the other partners in the European SAFARI project.

This progress represents a decisive step toward validating a pioneering technology with the potential to be replicated in other ports and river systems, contributing to a more circular management of dredged sediments and the development of port infrastructure that is more resilient to climate change.

(1) CRIStAL (Centre de Recherche en Informatique, Signal et Automatique de Lille) is a public research laboratory located at the University of Lille (France). Founded in 2015, it focuses on digital technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybersecurity, and has approximately 490 members, including permanent researchers and doctoral students.