Helium Shortage

[DIRTROAD]

I just received a letter from my local welding supply store. I didn't know this but, apparently the U.S. B.L.M. (Bureau of Land Management) is the largest producer of helium accounting for 80% of current supply, and they have released future projections that current gas fields throughout Kansas will exhaust their supply by the year 2020. This is already resulting in shortages and massive price inflation.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Glad I have no need for helium.

 

[k0ua]

beside welding and nuclear fuel research here are some other uses for the gas:
What helium is used for
*Airships
As helium is lighter than air it can be used to inflate airships, blimps and balloons, providing lift. Although hydrogen is cheaper and more buoyant, helium is preferred as it is non-flammable and therefore safer.


*MRI scanners
Helium's low boiling point makes it useful for cooling metals needed for superconductivity, from cooling the superconducting magnets in medical MRI scanners to maintaining the low temperature of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern.


*Deep-sea diving
Divers and others working under pressure use mixtures of helium, oxygen and nitrogen to breathe underwater, avoiding the problems caused by breathing ordinary air under high pressure, which include disorientation.


*Rockets
As well as being used to clean out rocket engines, helium is used to pressurise the interior of liquid fuel rockets, condense hydrogen and oxygen to make rocket fuel, and force fuel into the engines during rocket launches.


*Dating
Helium can be used to estimate the age of rocks and minerals containing uranium and thorium by measuring their retention of helium.


*Telescopes
The gas is used in solar telescopes to prevent the heating of the air, which reduces the distorting effects of temperature variations in the space between lenses.


Meanwhile we continue to squander the stuff at a rapid rate by putting it in balloons and releasing them. Some day there will be no more, and we cannot make it.


James K0UA

 

[sandman2234]

I liked tig welding with Helium, compared to Argon as it makes a prettier weld. I had a deal going that allowed me unlimited use of gases, from a welding supply chain, but that went away and now I use Argon, as it is CHEAPER! Guess I am part of the problem...
David from jax

 

[k0ua]

I think we are going to get along OK in welding process's without helium but some things still use it some. Argon we can make all day from distillation of air but helium is created naturely by radioactive decay over millions of years here on earth or by the fusion reaction on the sun..or we could go to Neptune or Uranus and bring some back. But the medical uses and research use's I feel are valid use's of the stuff, but I wish we would cut back on the party balloon thing. Until we can figure out fusion


James K0UA

 

[Soundguy]

maybee they should release some from the strategic reserves..

 

[DIRTROAD]

maybee they should release some from the strategic reserves..

I had no idea that the federal gov was so involved in helium production.

The letter that I got in the mail says that the feds took over helium production in the US in 1925. Who knew?

They probably do have some reserves somewhere though.

I hope they save them for medical applications instead of Macy's Parade baloons, although my son did enjoy seeing an oversized spongebob squarepants yesterday.

 

[Soundguy]

National Helium Reserve - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


here's a lil reading.. though there ar ebetter sites

 

[yomax4]

I thought Helium was a by product of Natural Gas? Can anyone correct that?

 

[k0ua]

I thought Helium was a by product of Natural Gas? Can anyone correct that?

You are correct, formed after millions of years of Uranium and Thorium decomposition. It is extracted from the methane. Almost all of it is within 250 miles of Abilene Tx. The US has around 50 percent of all Helium (that we know of) on earth.

James K0UA

 

[Soundguy]

the gas fields are what? 2-4% helium?

 

[k0ua]

the gas fields are what? 2-4% helium?

I have just now been reading up on this, apparently there is one in New Mexico that is 7% and the US produces about 78 percent of all the worlds, Helium. There is an area in Algeria, and some in Russia.

James K0UA

 

[EMB5530]

So can we price gouge everyone else or just trade it straight for oil!!!:laughing:

 

[k0ua]

I am thinking maybe some price gouging would be in order:laughing::laughing:

If you will remember your history, we would not sell Helium to the Fascist state of Germany in the late 30's and that is why the Hindenburg was lifting on Hydrogen.. and....KA-Boom!

James K0UA

 

[Danno1]

beside welding and nuclear fuel research here are some other uses for the gas:
What helium is used for
*Airships
As helium is lighter than air it can be used to inflate airships, blimps and balloons, providing lift. Although hydrogen is cheaper and more buoyant, helium is preferred as it is non-flammable and therefore safer.


*MRI scanners
Helium's low boiling point makes it useful for cooling metals needed for superconductivity, from cooling the superconducting magnets in medical MRI scanners to maintaining the low temperature of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern.


*Deep-sea diving
Divers and others working under pressure use mixtures of helium, oxygen and nitrogen to breathe underwater, avoiding the problems caused by breathing ordinary air under high pressure, which include disorientation.


*Rockets
As well as being used to clean out rocket engines, helium is used to pressurise the interior of liquid fuel rockets, condense hydrogen and oxygen to make rocket fuel, and force fuel into the engines during rocket launches.


*Dating
Helium can be used to estimate the age of rocks and minerals containing uranium and thorium by measuring their retention of helium.


*Telescopes
The gas is used in solar telescopes to prevent the heating of the air, which reduces the distorting effects of temperature variations in the space between lenses.


Meanwhile we continue to squander the stuff at a rapid rate by putting it in balloons and releasing them. Some day there will be no more, and we cannot make it.


James K0UA

It's also used to leak test critical joints/tanks/reservoirs/piping in precision pressure vessels/instruments.


.

 

[Scooby074]

maybee they should release some from the strategic reserves..

They have been. There's worry that the government had been foolish in opening up the reserves 5 years ago, as we now are facing shortages of helium.

"Scientists have warned that the world's most commonly used inert gas is being depleted at an astonishing rate because of a law passed in the United States in 1996 which has effectively made helium too cheap to recycle.

The law stipulates that the US National Helium Reserve, which is kept in a disused underground gas field near Amarillo, Texas – by far the biggest store of helium in the world – must all be sold off by 2015, irrespective of the market price.

The experts warn that the world could run out of helium within 25 to 30 years"

 

[BethesdaEC]

I had no idea that the federal gov was so involved in helium production.

The letter that I got in the mail says that the feds took over helium production in the US in 1925. Who knew?

They probably do have some reserves somewhere though.

I hope they save them for medical applications instead of Macy's Parade baloons, although my son did enjoy seeing an oversized spongebob squarepants yesterday.

In 1937 when the German Hindenburg burst into flames, it was because the lift gas was highly flammable hydrogen. The Hindenburg was designed for Helium but due to the strained relationship with the US prior to WWII, Germany could not get the US to provide the helium as it was considered a strategic commodity. They did the only thing that they could, they filled it with hydrogen.

 

[chrisott]

"...exhaust their supply by the year 2020."

I seem to remember in 1979 that there was an estimate of running out by 2025. We pumped on liquid Helium in our spectrometer to get to 1.4 Kelvin degrees. We had no Helium recovery system (no one did back then), so I guess I used more than my share in the last century. Sorry.

 

[5030]

Isn't helium the propellant in Reddi-Whip???

or is it Nitrous Oxide??

 

[chrisott]

The propellant in whipped cream cans is nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Don't ask me how I know:laughing: