Helium: Why the supply of the noble gas is confusing

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As a scientist, Robert Coleman Richardson knew more about helium than almost anyone else. The physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1996 for his research on the noble gas. And Richardson was also a loud voice who repeatedly warned that helium should be used sparingly. In about 25 years, the world's supplies would be exhausted, warned the Nobel Prize winner, who has since died, in 2010. Will there no longer be enough helium in the world in 2035?

The European Union's experts assess the situation differently. The EU regularly reviews the supply situation for 83 raw materials. Until 2017, helium was still on the list of critical resources, but in 2020 the result of the review was different. The supply of the noble gas is now considered secure. The responsible US authority also comes to a similar conclusion.

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Scarce commodity helium - or not?

This apparent contradiction is part of the confusing history of the raw material helium. The worldwide data situation "is very poor", writes the German Raw Materials Agency (Dera) in a background paper on noble gases. The production volumes officially cited so far may be flawed, Dera says. In most years, global demand has probably roughly corresponded to supply, it continues. Whether the noble gas helium is really a scarce commodity does not seem to be known exactly.

Many things are different with helium than with other raw materials. Helium, for example, is constantly being formed through natural processes. It is formed during the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium in the earth's crust. But helium atoms are so small that the gas can easily penetrate layers of the earth, get into the atmosphere and finally disappear into space. The second important supply of helium is the gas, some of which was already formed during the Earth's formation phase. It occurs in the Earth's mantle, but even from there it usually escapes unhindered into the air. In order for the raw material to be extracted, there must be special, thick layers of earth that prevent this outgassing into the atmosphere.

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Use of helium

In recent years, there have been repeated reports of helium crises in which the supply of the noble gas to users was no longer secure. The majority of the population does not even notice these problems. Those who come into contact with helium professionally usually have a special job. About a quarter of the world's helium demand is used to cool the magnets in medical equipment for complex imaging diagnostics, for example in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. Helium is also one of the raw materials needed for the production of glass fibres.

Thanks to its good thermal conductivity, liquid helium is an excellent refrigerant for high-performance technologies that have to operate at low temperatures. Many superconductors or measuring devices on satellites are cooled with helium, and the particle accelerators at CERN and magnetic levitation trains also use the noble gas. The launch of a space rocket is hardly possible without helium, because the gas is used during the fuelling and pressurisation of rocket propellants due to its extremely low reactivity. Helium can be used as a protective atmosphere to produce extremely pure materials and serves as a shielding gas in some welding processes. Professional divers breathe helium-oxygen-nitrogen mixtures when they descend to greater depths. The best-known use of helium among the general public is probably in zeppelins, weather balloons or for balloon flights. And of course the small, metal-coated special balloons for children's birthday parties or weddings.

Where helium is extracted

Helium is only produced in a few places in the world. Until 1994, the USA produced most of the gas. The United States was the only western producer of helium, and an important role was played for decades by the Cliffside helium storage field in Texas as by far the largest known source.

But the world market has changed. Helium is typically extracted from natural gas: where natural gas deposits are structured in such a way that the noble gas could not escape. While the traditional helium deposits in the USA have a noble gas content of 0.3 percent by volume, the helium quantities in other natural gas fields are significantly lower. Nevertheless, since the 2010s it has become economically attractive to separate helium in elaborate industrial plants. According to Dera, 49 helium plants were in operation worldwide in 2017.

55 percent of the gas came from the USA, 23 percent from Qatar, ten percent from Algeria and smaller quantities from Canada, Poland, Australia and Russia. These shares of these seven countries change from year to year, for example when prolonged maintenance takes a producer out of the market. South Africa and Tanzania are starting to build up production, which will stabilise the helium supply.

The helium crises of the past few years could be a result of one-off effects. This year, two plants in Qatar were routinely shut down for maintenance when a plant in the US had to close due to a leak. This was compounded by an explosion at a plant in Russia, whose production would fall under the embargo for the EU anyway. This meant that there was no longer enough helium available for several months. The main sufferers are the large research institutions, some of which can no longer work.

(jle)