Helium – from Abundance to Scarcity
It’s been a few years that I wrote my (2016) post about the “noble gas” helium. Needless to say, the overall response was not exactly “uplifting.”
Furthermore, my conclusion then was: “Therefore, instead of wasting this resource on zeppelins and blimps, I surmise that helium would better be reserved for its important medical and technical applications, even if it means that “Santa’s Elves may have to wait a bit longer for the material to build the children’s toys.”
By now, times have changed – for the worse. Helium supplies are rapidly dwindling (https://investingtrends.com/HECOF/could-this-rare-gas-be-the-next-gold-rush-facebook-amazon-and-google-
seem-to-think-it-is/),
Helium is not something that can be easily “mined”, even as a byproduct of other mining operations (like for iron, copper, and other metals and Earth’s resource kinds of deposits). In fact, it’s mostly a “byproduct” of natural gas that requires special processing technology and energy-consuming conditions. That has to do with the physical properties of helium gas.
Helium – not a gas like most other gases
To begin with, it’s extremely difficult (and energy-intensive) to separate it from its main source, widely occurring natural gas (NG), which is mostly methane. For example, refer to https://nahelium.com/about-helium/helium-production/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium.
Even this Wikipedia article is highly misleading in terms of helium’s common concentration in NG. On average, helium concentrations in NG are several orders of magnitude lower than the mentioned “up to 7 percent”, hence more difficult and expensive to separate from methane. Being what it is, helium liquefies (at atmospheric pressure) only at temperatures below MINUS 450 deg F (MINUS 269 deg C), and its triple point (i.e. the temperature above which it cannot be liquefied) is barely higher.
But the real problem is helium’s low abundance. Not only is it quite limited in the Earth’s crust, it’s both widespread and at extremely low concentrations. Hence collecting or “mining” it is an entirely different kettle of fish.
Helium “mining” technology
The technology applied for that separation is interesting. It depends on the fact that the extraordinarily small Helium (HE) molecule can easily diffuse through various materials that the larger methane molecules cannot. In short, hollow and evacuated glass beads are heated in steel towers filled with NG. At the right temperature, the HE will diffuse into these glass spheres while the M molecules will stay outside.
Then, upon cooling the NG to a normal temperature, evacuation of the towers will result in only the glass beads now containing some HE. Then, upon (first) evacuating and subsequent heating the tower again, the HE can, finally, be “harvested.” Clearly, that’s quite different from mining any hard-rock ore body with rich veins of copper or whatever other metal’s minerals.
Helium uses – important and fancy ones
Helium is important in various testing and research activities, especially in medical instrumentation to detect tumors. Among “fancy” uses of helium are children’s balloons and “Zeppelin-type” air-ships to lift cargoes and people to faraway places. Military officers may like to disagree with that view but it’s based on history. Originally, Graf [Count] Zeppelin’s idea for his air-ships was that they would be filled with helium gas.
Even one hundred years ago, helium was that not available in the quantities needed and/or too expensive for that purpose. Therefore, Zeppelin was forced to use the highly flammable hydrogen gas instead. That problem is even bigger today. While many children enjoy small balloons, as any parent may be able to observe, they don’t float aloft for very long. That has to do with another of HE’s properties, i.e. diffusion.
Diffusion – an enemy of helium
The smaller a molecule’s size, the more easily can it travel through any membrane. Even a rubber balloon, made to high standards, will have miniscule pores that the He atoms can escape through. And they do not hesitate to find such openings.
Also, as a result, the balloons deflate quite rapidly and settle on the ground. Furthermore, once in the air, helium is essentially not recoverable and will (given some time) be lost into space.
As a matter of illustration, such balloons are perfect analogs of present day political decrees. For example, just see the post on “Mounties For Freedom: 37,000 Signatures.”
Increasingly, governments appear to be more inclined to listen to the screeching voices of some activists than to those of their own loyal servants and majority of voters. Helium’s dwindling supply is a reminder that this gas is a rare gift from nature that ought to be used wisely.
Header image: Airships.net
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Herb Rose
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I’m not sure how you conserve helium. The gas naturally separates from other matter and rises to the top layer of the atmosphere, so without “mining” it, it is lost. The gas is continually produced at a constant rate by alpha decay of radioactive elements in the Earth, so the supply remains constant no matter whether the gas is used or allowed to escape into the atmosphere. Trying to store it is similar to trying to store heat. You may be able to temporarily slow the flow but you will never stop it.
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Protestant
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And helium is also used in weather balloons.
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Boris Badenov
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And in Birthday balloons, can’t forget them.
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