Lee Pfeifer's interest in alternative sources of energy is becoming more than just a pastime since being laid off last year from Whitesell Corp. in Washington. Working at home on hydrogen powered turbine, the Riverside resident hopes it will be an honors project when he becomes a student at the University of Iowa College of Engineering.
Pfeifer is currently a student at Kirkwood Community College and just recently received a $1,500 Van Meter Industrial Scholarship from the Kirkwood Foundation. Earlier in the summer he was awarded a $1,000 Shive-Hattery Scholarship, all to help him complete the engineering, science and math credits needed to transfer to the University of Iowa.
Going back to school as an older adult is a family tradition. Raised on the West Coast, Pfeifer said he originally came to Iowa when his mother was attending law school at the University of Iowa. He then met wife Wanda Lynn and they now have two daughters, Amanda and Brittney.
The Riverside resident says he has a degree in law enforcement and is currently a reserve county deputy sheriff. He has also worked as a paramedic. And though Pfeifer has always been interested in engineering, he admitted that he had always been intimidated by math. Not so now.
"I've always been someone who likes to put things together," Pfeifer said. Most of the parts for his experimental hydrogen turbine are scrounged from garage sales and places like the University's surplus store.
The continuing education, Pfeifer said, will give him the tools and discipline needed to continue his foray into the field of alternative energy.
Besides new sources of renewable energy just waiting to be discovered, the engineering student says there are all kinds of inventions just waiting in the wings that will offer cheaper and cleaner products. He points to how others have already been thinking outside the box - such as new technology that uses plain salt for swimming pools, doing away with expensive and potentially dangerous chlorine products.
By running an electrical current through salt water, a chemical reaction occurs that results in chlorine. The chlorine is broken back down to salt by the sun, Pfeifer said, so the pool water is just re-circulated through the salt water chlorine generator.
Pfeifer's hands-on endeavors aren't restricted to gadgets. He also likes to take pieces of scrap metal and turn them into works of art. He has been designing and making metal art pieces to represent renewable energy and recently presented one to the Washington Area Chamber of Commerce.