Helium Shortage

[Spin Echo]

link

Helium Shortage Could Be a Party Pooper
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN , 09.12.2006, 02:13 AM

Party planners beware: a global but temporary helium shortage could deflate festive balloons this fall.

The shortage affecting some suppliers results from a series of unconnected events, including delays in getting helium plants on line in Algeria and the Mideast, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said.

The agency manages public lands, mostly in the West, and their mineral resources. It handles 42 percent of the U.S. production of crude helium, the colorless, odorless gas best known for inflating balloons that is derived from natural gas production.

The government provides more than one third of the world's helium, selling it to private plants for processing.

The various factors involved in the shortage in recent months should be resolved by November, according to Leslie Theiss, who manages the BLM office in Amarillo, Texas, the heart of U.S. production of helium.

The U.S. government helium production remains at 100 percent, but output will be trimmed in the fall for up to two weeks for scheduled maintenance that has already been postponed to reduce further supply disruptions, Theiss said.

Any supply disruptions are most likely to affect occasional users - such as stores that sell seasonal party balloons - with year-round contract users in better shape.

In Cleveland, Cornelia Franklin at A Pink Gorilla party-supply store said she has used the same supplier for 17 years and has been assured her store will get uninterrupted priority shipments.

Helium use for balloons can be seasonal, including busy Valentine's Day and Christmas holiday demand, Franklin said. Any reduced supplies probably won't affect people much because fall is not a peak period, she said.

Inflating - "lifting" in industry lingo - represents less than 7 percent of helium use. Most uses are industrial, including aerospace, electronics, fiber optics, metals and medical imaging equipment.

The first public hint of the shortage emerged when party-supply stores warned customers that they were coping with reduced supplies amid reduced production and demand rising about 4 percent annually worldwide.

A key issue in the shortage involves contracts for helium supplies from a Qatar plant and two in Algeria which that been off-line, said Hans Stuart, a BLM spokesman. One overseas plant has been involved in lengthy maintenance and two are behind on construction schedules.

Along a 1-mile suburban Cleveland commercial corridor, the helium supply situation was uneven.

Factory Card and Party City stores, both with a wall of inflated sample balloons, reported no helium supply problems. But Party Place, whose logo includes red and blue balloons, warned customers with a notice taped to the entrance that temporary supply limits meant it cannot rent helium tanks used for mass inflating.

Pam Brooks, emerging from the Party City store with $9 worth of eight white and translucent balloons to promote an office-supply store open house, wasn't too worried, as long as the temporary shortage doesn't mean big price increases.

"Any kind of balloon - especially helium balloons that float around - are visual and attract attention and display a sense of fun," she said. "When people see balloons they know that's where the party is."

Would she pay a premium if helium gets expensive? "I guess it depends on how much more. It's not expensive as it is to get a display like this," she said.

Praxair Inc., a leading helium supplier based in Danbury, Conn., announced a 10 percent to 15 percent price increase Friday, in part due to high demand and energy costs. Airgas Inc. in Radnor, Pa., said in May it was raising prices for various items, including 15 percent or bigger hikes for helium because of higher energy and operating costs.

Praxair said it was working to keep its regular customers satisfied. "Given the fragile nature of the helium supply system, we are not able at this time to supply spot, backup, or unplanned volume," the company said Monday.

A high-profile helium user, the blimp fleet of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron, said it was more concerned by price increases resulting from any shortage. About 10,000 cubic feet to 20,000 cubic feet of replacement helium is pumped yearly into the blimps, which have capacities of 170,000 cubic feet to 180,000 cubic feet.

Blimps lose more helium in hot, humid weather, said Roger Rydell, a Goodyear vice president. He said the company would not disclose what it pays for helium.

White this is something people in my line of work have seen coming for quite a while, it's the first time I've seen it mentioned in the press. This shortage is temporary, but eventually we're going to run out of natural helium. As much as it will suck not to have the blimp and party balloons, it's going to hit researchers and medicial people pretty hard. We need liquid helium to keep our superconducting magnets on field. Hope they get those high temperature superconducting magnets soon (High temperature a relative term, this case meaning liquid nitrogen levels). IIRC, there's some way to manufacture helium, but it's pretty pricey.

[kheegster]

It's a conspiracy! The US government is trying to build a helium bomb!

[J]

I guess the MythBusters won't be doing any helium balloon myths for the next little while.

We're going to run short of many resources in my lifetime and yet so many people remain in denial. The free market and higher prices will solve all our problems they say, if only it were true.

[Admiral Valdemar]

At least we won't run short of stupidity. I find it's quite abundant.

[drachefly]

Ah, but how do we turn that into a resource?

[aerius]

Suddenly I feel guilty about huffing all those helium balloons in my youth.
But boy was it ever fun to talk with a funny high-pitched voice.

[kheegster]

Ah, but how do we turn that into a resource?

Ask Karl Rove.

[Winston Blake]

Ah, but how do we turn that into a resource?

Perhaps we could collect the dumbness of millions of people, then collimate it into a tight beam of psychic stupidity. Using this Moronifier Device, we shall conquer alien star systems and steal their resources. Entire armies shall fall drooling before the unstoppable idiocy of Earth. Why, vast fields of expendable genetically engineered super-morons will power an Empire the likes of which the galaxy has never seen. Eventually, even space-time itself will succumb to us, becoming too stupid to remember its own physical laws. Then entire universes will crumble under our fists! Bwahahaha!

[lazerus]

Why can't we just remove helium from the air? Admittantly, that would have to be more expensive then finding a naturally occuring source, but surly such a process is fesable?

[Spin Echo]

Why can't we just remove helium from the air? Admittantly, that would have to be more expensive then finding a naturally occuring source, but surly such a process is fesable?

Only if you're living on Saturn. The earth's atmosphere is only 5ppm helium. I'm not completely sure, but I'd imagine it would be much more cost effective to get your helium from radioactive decay.

[lazerus]

Why can't we just remove helium from the air? Admittantly, that would have to be more expensive then finding a naturally occuring source, but surly such a process is fesable?

Only if you're living on Saturn. The earth's atmosphere is only 5ppm helium. I'm not completely sure, but I'd imagine it would be much more cost effective to get your helium from radioactive decay.

That's....very bad.

What other sources are there then, if any?

[Ariphaos]

That's....very bad. :|

What other sources are there then, if any?

Pretty much alpha decay from uranium deposits.

[Broomstick]

Why can't we just remove helium from the air? Admittantly, that would have to be more expensive then finding a naturally occuring source, but surly such a process is fesable?

Only if you want hideously expensive helium.

Helium is named after "Helios", the Greek sun god, because it was discovered first in the sun and not on the Earth. Scientists knew of its existance through spectography (if I recall correctly) for some time before every finding a tangible sample here on the planet.

The damn stuff doesn't want to react with anything and has a tendency to float out of the atmosphere and into space. Unlike hydrogen, which is even more floaty but can be "trapped" by chemically combining with other elements. Thus, there are numerous compounds we can "crack" to obtain hydrogen, but none we can break apart for helium.

[J]

Helium Shortage Worsens

Balloon sellers find helium in short supply
Worldwide demand outpacing supply; production and delivery problems throw market off balance
BY KEIKO MORRIS | keiko.morris@newsday.com
September 10, 2007


The sleepless nights spent worrying about helium started about a month ago.

That's when Leon Sorin -- owner of Balloons by Sorin, balloon artist and vendor of these floating balls for events ranging from Columbia University festivities to bar mitzvahs -- was told that he would get one or two tanks of helium instead of his usual weekly supply of 10.

"People are panicking and the balloon stores are limiting you to 10 balloons per person. And people who don't even know me are calling for parties," said Sorin, whose company is based in Glendale, Queens. "I would do it if I had the helium."



Sorin, like his fellow balloon vendors, has been aware of a global helium shortage for about a year, but only in recent weeks have he and his colleagues begun to feel the pinch. Sorin was among the more fortunate because he had had 15 tanks in storage and eventually found another distributor to help bolster his supply -- but it's nowhere near the 10 tanks a week he used to receive.

"I'm a little worried but I think this guy is going to help me out," said Sorin, who had just purchased one more tank Friday, adding to the two he received Monday.

The worldwide helium demand is outpacing supply, and any interruption in production and delivery can throw the market off balance, experts said.

Helium plants expected to be fully operating this year in Qatar and Algeria were delayed and, in some cases, shut down, experts said. In September of last year, ExxonMobil, one of the nation's largest private producers of helium, shut down a plant in Wyoming for scheduled maintenance. Two months later, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management -- which operates the Federal Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas, and provides crude helium to private refineries -- did the same with its helium enrichment plant. During the winter, ice storms shut down production at a number of private plants and federal facilities, the agency said.

"We're delaying our maintenance until February and March to ease the impact of ExxonMobil going down for their maintenance," said Hans Stuart, chief of external affairs for BLM's New Mexico office.

Though an essential part of any child's party, helium-filled balloons represent a small percentage of how the gas is used. Helium is used to cool the magnets used by magnetic resonance imaging equipment and to purge space shuttle fuel tanks, according to the BLM.

Helium also is used in detecting gas leaks in other products and conducting state-of-the-art particle physics research. The gas even has a hand in the semiconductor and computer chip manufacturing process and plays a role in the guiding mechanisms of air-to-air missiles.

The federal helium program, created in 1925 to ensure a helium supply for the government's defense needs, consists of a storage facility called the Bush Dome. The federal reserve has become a major world supplier, but that was not the government's intention. When private demand outstripped the federal need, Congress passed the 1996 Helium Privatization Act, and the reserve was intended to supplement the private sector production. The program, however, now supplies about 42 percent of the domestic demand for helium and 35 percent of the global demand.

The demand in Asia and China has gone up rapidly because of the expanding electronics industry there and the use of sophisticated welding techniques, said John Campbell, publisher of the journal CryoGas International.

Federal mandate places agencies such as NASA at the top of the helium supply chain. In times of scarcity, the private distributors prioritize helium for medical uses, experts said.

"Like it or not, the balloon industry is at the lower end of the food chain," said Leslie Theiss, BLM field manager for the Amarillo Field Office.

So Long Island's balloon vendors and decorators have had to rely on their creativity. Verdi Montgomery, who owns and runs Balloons & Baskets in Bay Shore, said that the price of helium tanks jumped about 50 percent last month. For customers who don't want to pay the price hike, she has offered designs with balloons filled with air. But she admits that parties are hard to imagine without balloons.

Wayne Smith, who runs Bloomin' Balloons in Glen Head, also is planning to employ some creative strategies to deal with the shortage. Among some of his options: Using more bold designs that require fewer balloons, using air-filled balloons attached to supports, buying a regulator valve that mixes helium with air and tying air-filled balloons to the ceiling with monofilament -- so the balloons appear to be floating.

At the Paper Factory in Riverhead, Roger Naughton, store manager, has put up signs informing customers of a helium shortage and that orders will be filled on a first-come-first-serve basis.

"We have balloons in the windows," Naughton said. So when customers arrive, "we have to tell them, 'Sorry.' It's more that I feel disappointed for the kids."

Looks like we may have hit peak helium...

[Sikon]

The selling price of helium by private industry was ~ $3+ per cubic meter during 2006. A cubic meter of helium at STP is 0.18 kilograms, so, expressed in a different manner, current helium prices are around $20 per kilogram. Production from radioactive decay could be done but wouldn't be competitive in comparison, tending to be orders of magnitude more expensive.

Why can't we just remove helium from the air? Admittantly, that would have to be more expensive then finding a naturally occuring source, but surly such a process is fesable?

It's possible, but it isn't competitive when helium can be produced far more cheaply by separation from natural gas, where it is present in much higher concentration than air, the helium having been generated in past eons by the decay of natural radioisotopes, trapped and building up underground in the same areas as natural gas.

Another noble gas, neon, is currently industrially produced by separation from air. While the concentration difference in air between neon and helium is moderate at 18 ppm versus 5 ppm concentrations respectively, the only reason that's done with neon is because there isn't a cheaper source for it, as the process costs many times more than helium separation from natural gas.

Helium production actually isn't declining. Rather, there are more companies wanting to use helium. A rapid increase in desired demand is leading to increased competition between buyers. That raises selling price, despite the absolute amount of helium production actually also increasing.

More specifically, world helium production increased from 106 million cubic meters during 1994 to reach 134 million cubic meters during 1998, and it has continued to increase, reaching 160 million cubic meters in 2005. Last year, during 2006, it reached 170 million cubic meters (which is thirty thousand metric tons annual helium production). Helium production continues to increase.

However, despite the rapid growth in helium production, desired demand has risen faster:

Even with escalating helium prices, helium demand is expected to continue to grow slowly at about 2.5% to 3.5% per year. Based on helium export totals through July 2006, calendar year 2006 exports are expected to increase by 10% to 12% from 2005 exports.

Helium

The net result is helium price increase. An example is the small business in the article effectively getting outbid for helium in the marketplace by companies and institutions able to pay more.

Industry will get by with high helium prices in the near-term future, an undesirable but survivable situation. Incidentally, though, obtaining a more unlimited supply of helium someday could be a benefit once mankind finally colonizes space. Extraterrestrial sources include up to tens of percent helium concentration in the atmospheres of the gas giants. What happened on earth is that the escape velocity from the planet's gravity wasn't high enough to prevent almost all helium from escaping the atmosphere in the past, aside from the relatively miniscule amounts produced by more recent radioactive decay. Of course, helium's far too small of a component of the overall economy to really serve as much of an impetus for space activities in itself, with private helium sales being just $0.4 billion annually in the U.S. today out of a $13000 billion economy. Still, it would be a minor side benefit.

[General Deathdealer]

Ah, but how do we turn that into a resource?

Perhaps we could collect the dumbness of millions of people, then collimate it into a tight beam of psychic stupidity. Using this Moronifier Device, we shall conquer alien star systems and steal their resources. Entire armies shall fall drooling before the unstoppable idiocy of Earth. Why, vast fields of expendable genetically engineered super-morons will power an Empire the likes of which the galaxy has never seen. Eventually, even space-time itself will succumb to us, becoming too stupid to remember its own physical laws. Then entire universes will crumble under our fists! Bwahahaha!

We shall call these genetically engineered super-morons the Adeptus Moronicus. They shall be formed into legions led by the great Moronarchs.

[Spin Echo]

Looks like we may have hit peak helium...

Oh joy. I hope they hurry up with kitting MRI machines with helium recyclers.

[Darth Wong]

That's....very bad.

What other sources are there then, if any?

Pretty much alpha decay from uranium deposits.

Nuclear fusion

[Drooling Iguana]

Perhaps we could collect the dumbness of millions of people, then collimate it into a tight beam of psychic stupidity. Using this Moronifier Device, we shall conquer alien star systems and steal their resources. Entire armies shall fall drooling before the unstoppable idiocy of Earth. Why, vast fields of expendable genetically engineered super-morons will power an Empire the likes of which the galaxy has never seen. Eventually, even space-time itself will succumb to us, becoming too stupid to remember its own physical laws. Then entire universes will crumble under our fists! Bwahahaha!

But what happens when the universe forgets the laws governing time and causality, causing temporal rifts to open up in random places? And what happens if one of your genetically-engineered super-morons falls through one of these rifts, lands in the late 20th century and eventually becomes President of the United States? What then?

[Admiral Valdemar]

But what happens when the universe forgets the laws governing time and causality, causing temporal rifts to open up in random places? And what happens if one of your genetically-engineered super-morons falls through one of these rifts, lands in the late 20th century and eventually becomes President of the United States? What then?

Then we rely on Florida's wisdom to save us from damnation.

And I have to say, it would be nice to live to the point where we're scooping helium up from Jovians to power our fusion reactors and fill party balloons.

[Darth Servo]

Ah, but how do we turn that into a resource?

Stupidity? Exploit it. Haven't you ever heard that a fool and his money are soon parted?