One of the most abundant elements in universe has become rare- Helium

Okay I think I remember hearing something about this a few months back but it did not come to reality till this weekend.

My mom is celebrating her 80th birthday and I went to get some balloons.  As I was having the clerk fill the balloons I choose she goes on to tell me that I was lucky, they did not know if they would be getting a tank in due to the Helium Shortage.

So what gives?

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe. Helium is so abundant in outer space it makes up about 23% of the mass of the visible universe. Stars produce Helium via nuclear fusion every moment in time. It is used worldwide for everyone from physicists to computer chip makers to my balloon vendor who was worried about her supply.

It turns out that the federal government is getting out of the “Helium” business after more than eighty years of production (hey that’s my Mom’s age… coincidence?). It was hoped that the private sector would step in and fill the void. But this has not been the case.

As it turns out the United States is to Helium as what Saudi Arabia is to oil. The US produced about 90% of the commercially available Helium in the world until recently. The US has been producing helium since 1929.

In 1996, Congress passed the Helium Privatization Act.  This was to allow private industry to take over Helium production from the government. Well that has not turned out as well as they hoped.

Helium Production Worldwide

Though helium is not rare in the universe it is rarer on our planet and it is somewhat costly to extract. The US has wells in Texas as part of the Federal Helium Reserve that was established in 1925 near Amarillo. Oklahoma and Kansas are the principal world sources. Algeria, Canada, Poland and Russia also are producers at lower levels.  It has been calculated that helium makes up only about 0.000001% of the combined weight of the earth's atmosphere and crust. But most of it is concentrated in the exosphere, which is the outermost region of the atmosphere. This is 600-1500 miles above the earth's surface.

Some helium is extracted directly from the atmosphere but the majority of “Crude Helium” is separated from natural gas production through liquefaction and purification.

New plants are scheduled to come online in the coming year but till that happens we could still be facing some shortages.

Ancora Imparo

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