Why are we running out of Helium? There are two primary sources of Helium (He) and its isotopes here on Earth—neither of which are manmade. The first is directly from the Sun which for several billion years shot Helium down on the naked collection of rock that would eventually fuse together under the force of gravity and become our planet. Driven by the solar wind, He embedded itself deeply into the rock before we had a protective magnetosphere to insulate Earth from that wind. Now it forms a portion of our available He as it “leaks” to the surface. The other source was a different star that exploded as a nova or supernova millions of light-years away. Novae are the only source in the Universe of elements heavier than Iron and Nickel. Nothing heavier can be formed by a star unless it detonates in this fashion. Why is that important?Somewhere else that star ended its life and scattered most of the elements we now have, to arrive at this point in space, where they condensed into all the matter we have now. A small fraction of all that was Uranium, which has a half-life ranging amongst 25,000 to 700,000 to 4.5 billion years, depending on the isotope. When Uranium decays, one of its by-products happens to an alpha particle, composed of two neutrons and two protons—literally the nucleus of a Helium atom. Add a couple of electrons and poof you have He. All during Earth’s lifetime, as the Uranium decayed, He has been collecting in pockets beneath the ground. It often mixes with Natural Gas; we acquire He by separating it from that gas. Helium creation is outside of human control, so when we use up our Earthly supply, there is more.
Pricing
Until the mid-1990s the U.S. produced about 90% of the world’s helium supply. Consequently Helium costs were (and are) strongly influenced by the vagaries of U.S. pricing policies controlled nowadays by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) through its Crude Helium auctions. The BLM is charged with managing that country’s Strategic Helium supply. nSince 1996, U.S. legislation is forcing the BLM to sell off the reserve and get out of the business of Helium management by turning it over to the public sector, and they are now intent on recovering all of the remaining costs which they have incurred since 1960, to collect the helium initially. The BLM Helium Auctions have been repeatedly dominated by single buyers. Air Products took all 12 available lots for 2019, out-bidding PRAXAIR and MATHESON, for 210 million cubic feet at a total cost of 58.8 million dollars. This is the second year in a row that they have done this, hitting record prices of nearly US$280 per thousand cubic feet, more than $160 over last year’s prices. There will be no more auctions now that the Strategic Helium Reserve has reached the legally mandated minimum of 3 billion cubic feet (85 million cubic metres). In addition, when Qatar severed diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, the market was destabilized. They made new shipping arrangements and began moving Helium again through Oman, and stability was restored. The He market is subject to many influences. Availability, and control of rights to He supplies, dominates pricing. Regular U.S. sales (outside of the BLM) will proceed, supplying about 55% of the world’s He. Qatar provides another 32%, with 12% coming from Algeria, Australia, and Russia. The rest of the world produces the remaining 1%. nInertia relates to things that resist change, and that can even include scientists on occasion. Helium has a few things favouring it aside from tradition. It is non-inflammable, it’s inert (meaning it doesn’t form chemical or nuclear bonds with other elements), and it’s non-toxic. It also elutes fairly well (separates from other substances). Nitrogen, another competitor for use in Gas Chromatography (GC), in also non-inflammable, and non-toxic, but it does combine with other things, and has difficulty releasing those bonds (elution), making it less effective as a carrier gas. It slows the process and gives less accurate results. Hydrogen, the last contender does burn, and in the wrong proportions, quite explosively, but then again, so does petrol (gasoline). Hydrogen, on the other hand, because of its remarkably low viscosity, processes twice as fast, doubling throughput; it requires much lower temperatures, thus causing less damage to the equipment; it even prevents acid-damage effects, leading to prolonged equipment life.
The Ultimate Carrier Solution
Helium costs were only going to continue to skyrocket; Nitrogen was a very poor substitute, despite its low cost; Hydrogen seemed to be a great alternative except for its flammability. But ultimately the truth is, anything which is badly handled can be dangerous, including ordinary water. Hydrogen gas as a carrier in Gas Chromatography was such an incredible idea that it needed to be investigated. Sion Technologies designed the UCS-1000 to safely fulfil that very important need.
Safe & Protected
The UCS made it possible, for the very first time, to use Hydrogen gas in perfect safety. Now you could take any source of Hydrogen gas, and supply it to a Gas Chromatograph or a GC/Mass Spectrometer and get better results, faster, and save immense wear-and-tear on the equipment. More importantly, the built-in safeguards respond within 10 seconds if there is any sort of fault with leakage, low pressure, flame-out, or any other issues, and provide a complete log of any errors.
No Maintenance Costs
The UCS can run 24/7/365 with utter reliability. It has no associated costs.
Healthier and Environmentally Responsible
Excess gas and their analytes are often released to the laboratory air, no matter which carrier gas was chosen. Ventilation hoods were of dubious value, so the expression “You breathe what you sample” arose everywhere. The USC-1000 is a closed-loop system. Not only does it supply the carrier gas to the GC or GC/MS, but it collects the spent gas and analytes, and brings it back to the unit where all is safely burned and rendered harmless. Now employee health is much more secure, safe from toxins and contaminants. The UCS can also supply hydrogen to FID (Flame Ionisation Detector), FTD (Flame Thermionic Detector), and FPD (Flame Photometric Detector) units (along with an array of others such as TCD, NPD, ECD and PID) simultaneously, and process their by-products as well, if required.
The Takeaway
You can save up to 95% of your costs (over using Helium) by making the switch to Hydrogen. The fact that you can double your lab’s ability to complete GC or GC/MS runs only make it more desirable. You will eliminate risk to employee health since the analytes and excess gas are now recovered and destroyed safely within the UCS-1000. And it can even supply Hydrogen to all of your devices that require hydrogen flame for analysis. Finally, your equipment will last longer. That means yet another way to save money and spend that cash where it is going to be really useful: Doing Science! We must alter our mind-set from using irreplaceable Helium when there is a much better substitute. The future will thank you for being forward-thinking. Call us today, and let us demonstrate how Hydrogen and the UCS-1000 represent most sensible path for the field of GC and GC/MS!