In 1961 the UT Space Institute began a many-year investigation of the possibilities for energy savings using Michael Farraday’s nineteenth-century theories of magneto hydrodynamics, through which it was posited that commercialized MHD plants could produce 50 percent more electricity from a ton of coal than was possible with conventional steam turbines. Dr. John Dicks directed the project from its incipience. The University of Tennessee Space Institute built a coal-burning electric power plant based on these principles. The first federal contract came in 1964, and more than $60 million was subsequently received.
In 1977 the Tennessee General Assembly created the Tennessee Energy Institute to promote energy research and development, especially MHD project work, and authorized up to $5 million for implementation of a commercialization plan. Commercialization for coal power plants faltered, but the MHD theories were used at UTSI in the 1986–96 railgun project, and in 2001 an investigation began that could transform heat from an aircraft jet engine into short, high-energy bursts of electricity using MHD. Plasma research at Knoxville has also involved MHD.