SPOOLS: SUSTAINABLE POOLS – MAIN DEVELOPMENTS OF THE PROJECT

The University of Algarve in consortium with Saint-Gobain Weber Portugal and Cristal Construções – Materiais e Obras de Construção Civil is developing a new concept of sustainable swimming pool which is more energy efficient with less environmental footprint and with reduced construction and maintenance costs. The specific objectives are the use of recycled materials, the reduction of the CO2 emissions in the life cycle of the construction materials, the reduction of the water losses, the use of renewable energy from the sun by exploiting the thermal inertia of the materials surrounding the swimming pool and the reduction the energy consumption during the structure lifetime by increasing the durability and reducing the number of reparations. To this end, new formulations of concrete and mortar are being developed and tested in our laboratories. They incorporate recycled materials and also materials with reduction of CO2 emissions during the production phase. An important concern is related with the development of an innovative system for the use of renewable energy from the area surrounding the swimming pool. One of the outputs of this project will be the construction of a semiscale prototype of a swimming pool with dimensions of 10m x 5m x 1.5m, and with the characteristics mentioned above, in order to observe and validate the proposed developments.