The Helium Crisis
Impacted Industries
Helium is most commonly known as a lifting gas in blimps and party balloons, but there are more critical uses for this nonrenewable resource. The number one use of helium is as a cooling gas for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines used in medical facilities. Other important uses of helium include: a protective gas for welding, an inert gas for controlled atmosphere manufacturing, a fugitive gas used for leak detection, and a low viscosity gas for pressurized breathing mixtures. Other industry related uses are listed below.
Agriculture
- Farming Equipment
Construction
- Metals Processing
Energy
- Oil/Gas Production
- Oil and Gas-Offshore
Glass/Minerals
- Primary Glass
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after fiber-optic glass is drawn into fine strands, it is shielded with helium while the cladding is applied in order to prevent the newly formed glass surface from reacting with the contaminants present in ambient air.
- Processed Glass Products
Healthcare
- Hospitals/Institutions
- Hospital Applications
Leisure/Recreation
- Balloon Inflation
Metals
- Metals Processing
- Thermal Spray
Photovoltaics (Solar)
- Ingot/Wafering
- Thin Film
Semiconductors
- LED/Compound Semiconductor
- Silicon Semiconductors
Transportation
Aerospace
- Metals Processing
Automotive
- Metals Processing
Testimonial
Living on Earth a website publication posted an interview on 11/26/2010 with 2 prominent professors with their views and concerns about the helium shortage.
Nobel laureate Dr. Robert Richardson Nobel laureate Dr. Robert Richardson, professor of physics at Cornell University and Dr. Charles Groat is the John A. and Katherine G. Jackson Chair in Energy and Mineral Resources, Department of Geological Sciences and Professor of Geological Sciences and Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin both expressed concerns on the future supply of helium. Other countries such as Russia, Qatar. Or Algeria are not refining it yet, Dr. Richardson believes they are holding out for economic reasons and anxious for the United States to run out of helium because the price of helium will then skyrocket. "So the world isn’t running out of helium. But by selling off the federal helium reserve, the US runs the risk of depending on unknown or unfriendly sources for this essential element," says Dr. Groat.