After nine years at the helm of Daphne Utilities, General Manager Rob McElroy announced in August 2014 that he was stepping down to take a position with Algae Systems, the company behind an experimental wastewater-treatment and biofuel project on the city’s bayfront.
A resignation and a transition
McElroy submitted his resignation letter to the Daphne Utilities board on a Monday and said he would remain available to work through the end of August. The utility employed about 70 people and served more than 10,000 customers in the city, providing water, sewer and natural gas service.
“I’m just moving on to another path with another company,” McElroy said. “I’ll be going to work for Algae Systems, which is a company that has invested more than $5 million into the local economy already, and I really think I can help them accomplish something really significant in the alternative fuels markets.”
Board Chairman Bob Segalla said a special meeting would be called soon to choose an interim general manager, most likely Assistant Manager Danny Lyndall. Segalla credited McElroy with turning the utility into a well-run operation.
“Rob has done an outstanding job for the utility, and we wish him every success because he’s a good manager,” Segalla said. McElroy, for his part, said he had no complaints about his time at the utility. “It’s been a great company. It’s full of great people and an extremely supportive board,” he said, adding that the opportunity was one that comes along only a few times in a career.
How the algae project works
McElroy’s new employer had been working with Daphne Utilities on a project that leased a small strip of bayfront property behind Thomas Medical Center and the Publix shopping center. The Daphne City Council gave the utility the green light to lease the property in November 2012. Although the utility operated as a separate entity from the city, its five-member board was appointed by the council.
The Nevada-based company’s process used the city’s wastewater as a nutrient for controlled algae blooms that cleaned the water and, in turn, produced biofuel. A floating dock extending into Mobile Bay in front of the city’s Bayfront Park held effluent-filled plastic bags, with the process driven by wave action and sunlight. The technology had originally been developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and licensed to Algae Systems, which had reportedly secured patents for the process in Australia and India.
“They’re doing really cutting-edge technology of wastewater treatment using algae and then converting algae into bio crude oil from which any type of fuel can be derived — gasoline, diesel, jet fuel,” McElroy said. He described the venture as still in its ramp-up phase and said it was backed by private investors, many from outside the country.
A new role and a longer horizon
McElroy said he would become vice president of operations and market development at Algae Systems, a role he believed suited his experience in the utility industry.
“There’s a lot of markets within the utility industry that I think I am uniquely qualified to open their eyes to,” he said. He was especially drawn to the technology’s potential in the developing world, describing the possibility of turning a community’s sewage and lack of clean water and affordable fuel from a liability into an asset. “It could transform a society,” he said.
McElroy said Algae Systems would likely remain in Daphne for at least three more years and evolve into more of a research facility, even as the company’s broader goal was to build commercial sites across the country and beyond. His departure closed a chapter that began in 2005 and left the utility board preparing to name interim leadership while a company born on the Daphne bayfront looked toward a wider stage.