Happy 152nd Birthday Helium!
You may think of helium as the stuff in party balloons, or the gas that can make your voice squeaky. But helium has revealed itself to have an array of more practical uses, from essential equipment in science labs to common medical scanners and even scuba tanks.
What is Helium?
Helium is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas, and second lightest and second most abundant element in the observable universe (hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant).
With a boiling point at -452 degrees Fahrenheit, helium’s liquid state is the coldest of any element, and it doesn’t freeze at everyday pressures, making it the world’s best coolant. Superconducting magnets, such as the ones in MRI scanners or crucial pieces of chemistry lab equipment, don’t work unless they’re bathed in liquid helium.
And like the other noble gases, helium is inert, making it a valuable addition to manufacturing. Semiconductor makers use helium to help circulate chemical vapors and heat while computer chips get etched. Deep-sea divers breath a mixture of helium and oxygen, which helps them avoid the dangers of “the bends.”
A Wide Variety of Uses
By combining helium and oxygen, doctors produce a heliox gas mixture (roughly 79% helium and 21% oxygen), useful for the effective treatment of respiratory ailments like asthma and emphysema.
The super powerful magnets used to produce MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) have to be cooled in order to consistently and accurately do their jobs of providing extremely detailed images of internal body structures. With its extremely low boiling point, helium gas is the first choice of hospitals to perform that crucial task.
The fiber optic cables that carry Internet and cable TV services have to be manufactured in a pure helium atmosphere in order to ensure air bubbles don’t get trapped inside the cables.
One of the more prevalent uses of helium comes in the production of semiconductor chips. Phones, TVs, computers, tablets—if a device contains a chip, it wouldn’t be possible without the helium used at different stages in the production process.
Helium filled hard drives are starting to replace air filled hard drives, primarily because they offer 50% higher storage capacity with 23% lower operating power. It’s also estimated that a single tank of helium gas can produce 10,000 hard drives.
Although not used directly as rocket fuel, helium is used to clean the fuel tanks of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen that are used as fuel. Knowing that helium is inert allows the space program to trust that it won’t react or combust with any oxygen that happens to remain in the tank.
Because it can diffuse quickly, helium is the gas of choice for effecting the near instantaneous deployment of airbags in cars.
Up
Helium enabled one of the most bizarre daredevil stunts of the 20th century when a California man flew over Long Beach in a lawn chair.
In 1982, a southern California truck driver named Larry Walters bought nearly four dozen weather balloons, filled them with helium, attached them to a chair weighed down with water jugs, broke loose from his tethers and soared to an elevation of 16,000 feet . . . in a lawn chair.
He carried a BB gun, a CB radio, some sandwiches, two liters of soda and a lifelong aspiration to achieve flight.
He drifted into a commercial airline approach lane for LAX airport. He alarmed passing pilots before he shot a few balloons, descended into a residential neighborhood, snared a power line, caused a blackout, nearly electrocuted himself, fell under arrest and gave the first of many media interviews as he was led away in handcuffs.
With all these varied and helpful uses for helium, you might not be surprised to discover that it’s occasionally hard to get a hold of.
Shortages
Party City, one of the country’s leading suppliers of colorful balloons, announced recently that it would shutter 45 of its 870 stores in 2019. Across the internet, many said it was because of a shortage of helium.
What happened to the helium? It’s supposed to be one of the most prevalent elements in the universe. Is there actually a global helium shortage? Yes.
Where did the helium go?
Part of the problem is that as delightful — and essential — as helium may be, it’s an afterthought for many international businesses. Ninety-seven percent of the world’s helium is produced as a “waste product,” collected while processing natural gas or producing liquefied natural gas. Longstanding sources of it in the United States, Qatar and elsewhere are currently running low. New natural gas projects are on the horizon. But these projects are enormous, expensive and affected largely by factors that have little to do with children’s birthday parties or even broader helium needs.
The helium shortage started in 2019 and is looking to be much better in 2020. Air Source Industries offers the helium gas and products you need for your medical and industrial needs.
Conclusion
For industrial and medical businesses, Air Source Industries has your compressed gas needs covered in the greater Los Angeles area. The sooner you reach out, the sooner we can help! For price quotes, simply click “Get a Quote” or call at (562) 426-4017.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/science/helium-shortage-party-city.html
https://www.rockymountainair.com/blog/10-helium-uses/
https://zephyrsolutions.com/15-uses-for-helium-you-never-knew/
https://www.insidescience.org/news/helium-150-years-after-its-discovery
https://www.gasworld.com/kornbluth-helium-shortage-to-ease-in-2020/2018205.article