Where is helium stored

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Subscribe to Email Updates. Recent Posts. Contact WestAir. Subscribe to our blog. Follow Us. But that's set to close down production in , and scientists are looking for new reserves to replace it. Watch the video above to learn more about shortage hitting the earth's helium supply. The global demand for helium continues to increase, causing major concern over the finite resource of helium gas, thereby rendering the supply chain fragile.

The problem with extracting helium gas is that not many natural gas fields have high concentrations of helium gas and extracting helium from such fields would be too costly for the meagre levels of gas obtained.

So why is helium so valuable? However, because of the uncertainty on the future supply of helium gas and the inevitable inflation of the costs involved, many industries are resorting to other sources for their applications.

Gas chromatography is one of such applications utilising other gases as a carrier gas instead of helium. Although the choice of carrier gas depends on the contents of the sample, hydrogen gas is one of the main contenders as a substitute for helium.

Having very low viscosity, hydrogen gas can provide the highest mobility rate of all carrier gases, reducing time for sample analysis. Benefits of cost savings is also another factor to be considered when opting for a carrier gas alternative. Hydrogen gas, unlike helium, can be produced on-site through electrolysis of deionized water using a hydrogen generator, providing the purity required for efficient analysis. As opposed to storing helium or hydrogen gas in cylinders, hydrogen can be accessed on demand with a hydrogen generator, ensuring that the hydrogen gas generated corresponds to the amount required for the application and no excess gas needs to be ordered in advance.

With those wells, production plants , maintenance roads, and pipelines running across the surface of these formations to prosthetically adapt bedrock to use in industrial process, the ground itself has assumed a hybridized and mechanical nature, comprising a very literal landscape machine. Basically companies shoot helium into these giant caverns, and then install "wells" that act as nozzles that can be opened to let the gas out.

According to a recent article in Seed :. Though the FHR still holds more helium than any other stockpile by far, its stores are rapidly diminishing.