Sports excellence and environmental sensitivity come together in one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments in Spain. The Reial Club de Tennis Barcelona-1899 (RCTB), which organizes the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Trofeo Conde de Godó, has promoted a pioneering gray water recycling project from showers and rainwater in the sports field that reuses all the water which is consumed in the changing rooms and allows it to be totally self-sufficient in watering the courts.
Since 2008, when another great drought devastated Catalonia, the RCTB began studying energy saving and water consumption systems. On clay courts, maintenance and permanent irrigation are essential, which requires between 2,000 and 4,000 liters of water per court. “In summer we have to water three times a day so that the tracks do not suffer and break,” highlights Pablo Acevedo, operations director of the RCTB.
Various initiatives promoted under the advice of the Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentària (Irta) led to underground irrigation tests with a membrane system that sweated humidity and with cameras that controlled the ideal state of the tracks. The cost of the project was economically unviable.
Subsequently, contact with Aguas de Valencia led to the involvement of Aigües de Barcelona, which collaborated in the search for more efficient formulas for water reuse. Thus, a treatment plant was built that generates 73 cubic meters of water that is stored in three tanks located under the terrace of runway number one. The project was carried out in three phases. In the first, the water circuits in the men's and women's locker rooms were redesigned to separate the gray water and convey it to the treatment station.
Irrigation on the slopes is carried out manually, with a hose, during the day, while at night they switch to sprinkler irrigation, which keeps the slope in an impeccable condition. The tanks, with 73 m3 stored, “are equivalent to a summer day of watering gardens and courts,” says the manager.
Water treatment is carried out through several mechanisms. Initially, filtration is carried out to eliminate solid waste and impurities. The water then passes through ultrafiltration membranes that eliminate 99.9% of bacteria, viruses, colloids and suspended solids, thereby complying with the provisions of the legislation established by RD1620 2007. Optimal filtration It is carried out by carrying out three tests with biochemical analyzes that control the levels of antifoams, thanks to the “nanofiltration of the entire system,” summarizes Acevedo. The treatment plant treats the water as if it were a public swimming pool. In addition, several electronic probes and controllers monitor the balance of the various parameters. If they go out of normal, the treatment plant stops and water is extracted directly from the well with which until now the installation was supplied and which, despite the drought, maintains the usual water table.
The project, in which more than one million euros has been invested, allows the club to be self-sufficient in the irrigation of courts and gardens.
The RCTB has also invested more than 300,000 euros in energy efficiency systems. Electrical systems and machinery have been updated. The lighting has been replaced by LED systems throughout the facility.
Currently, the RCTB project contemplates collaborations with other entities, such as the neighboring Liceo Francés, to which the surplus regenerated water that is now poured into the sewer could be transferred. On the other hand, an agreement with the educational center could lead to the creation of a self-consumption community with photovoltaic panels.
