Helium party balloons saved from extinction

[Ted King]

Well, helium party balloons aren't really threatened with extinction, but a shortage of helium has been a growing problem for party goers and, more importantly, scientists and engineers. But a new production facility should help:

http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i28/Heliu...-Lift.html

The start-up of a big new helium plant in Qatar should go a long way to ease shortages of the lighter-than-air chilling gas, which is essential to the operation of many scientific instruments and to the manufacture of fiber-optic cables and semiconductors.

The plant, in Qatar’s Las Raffan Industrial City, is the world’s largest helium liquefier, with a production capacity of more than 1.3 billion cu ft per year, according to Air Liquide, which built the purification and chilling equipment. It is operated by Qatar’s RasGas, which separates the helium from natural gas that is drawn from the country’s North Field deposits.

The new unit, with annual capacity of 2.1 billion cu ft., makes Qatar the world’s second-largest source of helium. The U.S. cranked out nearly 4.9 billion cu ft of helium last year, of which more than 60% was exported, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
- - - - - - - - -
U.S. users welcome the additional supply, but they say helium prices remain too high. “Helium is still $13 per L for us,” says Martha Morton, director of research instrumentation at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Last year prices were as high as $22 per L for some users, up from about $5 per L a few years earlier.

Morton has already heard from suppliers that prices will rise in 2014. That’s when she plans to refill a repaired 600-MHz nuclear magnetic resonance instrument that was damaged last year when she couldn’t get the helium needed to keep it operating.

Just how much of an increase Morton will have to pay hinges on the potential shutdown in October of Cliffside Field, a U.S. government reserve in Texas that accounted for one-third of the world’s helium output last year. Congress is now considering legislation to keep the field operating for a few more years until reserves run out.

[cbelt3]

Not so fast, Buckaroo Banzai. He (Helium 4) is obtained in some drilling operations (a byproduct of oil drilling) and distilled in the process. It is not easy to Manufacture, unless you're tapping the gaseous output of nuclear power plants. And then you don't get much. Theoretically you'd need another Big Bang, or at least a fusion power plant, to make more Helium. Or a big straw into the Sun or one of the gas giants in the solar system.

You won't see the price drop, and it's still a "Limited" resource.

[ztirffritz]

Helium is a finite resource. The US oil fields happen to have a bunch of it, actually most of the world's known supply, which is why the US stockpiled it during WWII. (they thought that lighter than air vehicles would figure more prominently in the war effort.) After 70+ years politicians got involved and stupidity resulted. They mandated that the US get out of the He stockpiling business. They flooded the market and all kinds of stupid Helium businesses popped up. Now the He market is starting to drift toward a real market economy. You'll find that Helium balloons will soon cost $30-$50 to inflate (I'm just pulling the number out of a rear facing orifice, but you get the idea)

[testcase]

They are building the new plant?





I thought it was still up in the air.......8-)

[Ted King]

cbelt3 wrote:
Not so fast, Buckaroo Banzai. He (Helium 4) is obtained in some drilling operations (a byproduct of oil drilling) and distilled in the process. It is not easy to Manufacture, unless you're tapping the gaseous output of nuclear power plants. And then you don't get much. Theoretically you'd need another Big Bang, or at least a fusion power plant, to make more Helium. Or a big straw into the Sun or one of the gas giants in the solar system.

You won't see the price drop, and it's still a "Limited" resource.

All I said was that this new production facility should help with the shortage. That's true, isn't it? Are you saying that more production will make no difference in how short the supply of helium is for scientists, engineers and party balloon fans who want to get their hands on some?

[ztirffritz]

This will explain it better than I could:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/09/2...h-the-roof

[eustacetilley]

Where I used to work, liquid Helium at $5 started to be an issue, so many of the groups looked into closed systems, where the vented gas was re-liquified. But then again, back in the eighties, when we went through a _lot_ of film, we set up a Silver recycling plant...

What worries some researchers more is the shortage of 3-He. It is difficult and expensive to purify it from natural, so we some of it from the Russians, who were making a little profit from their Tritium waste product . ($110 per liter, STP, 1999.)

Although commonly only thought of as a future source feed for Fusion plants, it actually has many interesting research uses, not the least of which is refrigeration.
One plan that died was to make a large particle detector, coincidentally cooled by Liquid 3-He. It was killed by the estimated cost of $20M for the coolant, and it turns out that there wasn't enough of the liquified gas available to fill it.

http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/p...ypassSSO=1

Eustace

[Acer]

ztirffritz wrote: (I'm just pulling the number out of a rear facing orifice, but you get the idea)

Got any helium in there?

[Ted King]

testcase wrote:
They are building the new plant?





I thought it was still up in the air.......8-)

Yesterday when I read your post, I just assumed you were making a pun, but when I happened to notice it again today it occurred to me that maybe you weren't. The article I linked to was dated for yesterday from an outfit that seems to be reliable. The caption under that picture in the article says, "This helium liquefier, shown under construction, is now operating in Qatar."

[Ombligo]

He at more than $1cf is making my Scuba diving very costly. I still open circuit and He cost alone can add 40-$50 to filling each of my breathing tanks for a dive.