Just as we’re starting to deal with the scourge of dihydrogen monoxide poisonings, the United States has a helium shortage, caused by mismanagement by the bureau of land management. I guess fearing that China would steal the entire world supply of helium, the US decided we needed to create a strategic helium reserve in a cave in Texas.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.wired.com\/2015\/07\/feds-created-helium-problem-thats-screwing-science\/<\/a><\/p>\n When we decided that was silly, we started selling it off creating a glut and killing the suppliers. Now that the supply dried up, the prices have skyrocketed.<\/p>\n How is helium produced? Well helium is an element, so you don’t produce it, you separate it out from everything else. Helium has the lowest liquid point of any element.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.madehow.com\/Volume-4\/Helium.html<\/a><\/p>\n While there is some helium in the air, you could separate it out, but that is inefficient. He4 is a natural product of alpha particle emitting radioactive decay. Some natural gas fields have high amounts of Helium where uranium is present nearby.<\/p>\n Helium is isolated by distillation, which works because different elements boil at different temperature. Because Helium has the lowest boiling point, you essentially boil off everything else and what you have left is helium. How do you do that? You add pressure. When you compress a gas, it heats up. When you cool down the compressed gas, it loses energy. Slowly release the pressure and the gas mix gets colder. When it gets colder, the gases with the highest boiling points turn to liquid first. You remove that liquified gas and set it aside. The helium is still a gas. Repeat. Eventually the gas is only a few degrees above absolute zero and all you have left is helium.<\/p>\n The US Military needed a lot of helium during World War Two. They found that by filling the tires on bombers with helium, they could extend the range of the planes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just as we’re starting to deal with the scourge of dihydrogen monoxide poisonings, the United States has a helium shortage, caused by mismanagement by the bureau of land management. I guess fearing that China would steal the entire world supply … Continue reading