When it comes to helium supplies – current and future – our greatest focus is on natural gas field sources. But we can also download helium from the atmosphere along with other rare or noble gases, via an air separation unit.
So why are we looking to the ground, rather than the skies, for our future helium (He) requirements?
“There is a huge amount of He in the atmosphere – 3.8 billion tonnes of it,” says Clarke, an Independent Process and Resources Consultant, based in Oxford, UK. The key problem is that the He in air is so dilute. “That is what drives the cost – the volume of air that has to be processed,” Clarke says.
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