Zhang’s team said their generator system could produce one gigawatt of electricity

 Zhang’s team said their generator system could produce one gigawatt of electricity from just five cubic metres (177 cubic feet) of hypersonic plasma.

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Other researchers have tried setting off dynamite to generate hypersonic shock waves for an MHD generator, but this approach required lots of chemical explosives and was largely abandoned because of safety concerns, Zhang’s team said.

Turning explosive energy into electricity is not easy, according to a Beijing-based researcher not involved in Zhang’s study.

An MHD generator works efficiently with gas at high temperatures. But the faster the gas travels, the more quickly it cools.

Zhang’s team was able to achieve extremely high speeds and temperatures at the same time, said the researcher who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Explosions are also difficult to control, and taming this extreme process for energy production could benefit society, the researcher said.

“If this technology finds an application in power generation, we may owe the hypersonic weapons a big ‘thank you’.”