Helium - American Chemical Society (2024)

FAQs

Does the US still have a helium reserve? ›

For about 100 years, the government has stockpiled helium in underground caverns near Amarillo, Texas. Originally, it was for lighter-than-air aircrafts, blimps and the like, but now it's used to provide an essential element for MRI machines, semiconductor manufacturing and, of course, party balloons.

“However, the good news is that we're not running out of helium,” Trønnes says. The Earth's interior is absolutely enormous, and this is where the helium comes from. “It will continue to seep out through rocks and cracks forever,” he says.

Similar to economic recessions, it can be difficult to identify the precise start or end of a helium shortage. All the same, Kornbluth Helium Consulting (KHeC) believes that, after winding down gradually during the second half of 2023, Helium Shortage 4.0 (HS-4.0) ended by the end of 2023 or early in Q1 of 2024.

While most think helium is used mainly in party balloons, NASA is the single biggest buyer of helium. Annually, NASA consumes approximately 75 million cubic feet of helium, primarily used in rocket propulsion.

Helium is a non-renewable natural resource that is most commonly recovered from natural gas deposits. Geologic conditions in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas make the natural gas in these areas some of the most helium-rich in the world (with concentrations between 0.3 percent and 2.7 percent).

Helium can be found in abundance all over the universe. In fact, it is the second most abundant element known to man. Because of its chemical composition, it is not possible to produce helium artificially, which is why it is extracted from natural gas wells.

Argon can be used instead of Helium and is favoured for some metals. Helium is used for many lighter-than-air applications, and Hydrogen is a possible substitute for many where the flammability of Hydrogen is not a concern.

Once the gas leaks into the atmosphere, it is light enough to escape the Earth's gravitational field so it bleeds off into space, never to return. We may run out of helium within 25–30 years because it's being consumed so freely.

If our supply ran out, it could spell the end of MRI testing, LCD screens and birthday party balloons. Or it could make all of those things much more expensive. Although argon — another inert gas — can be substituted for helium for welding purposes, no other element can do what helium can do in super cold applications.

Apart from being the world's main producer and one of the largest helium consumers, the U.S holds the most extensive helium reserves worldwide. As of 2023, the country's helium reserves amounted to more than 8.5 billion cubic meters, surpassing the reserves of runners-up Algeria and Russia combined.

Why did the US sell its helium supply? ›

The United States is the world's largest producer of helium. In 2020, the Bureau of Land Management, the national public lands agency, said it was auctioning the federal system to comply with the 2013 Helium Stewardship Act, which required the government to sell its helium assets in a privatization initiative.

Once the deal is finalized, the buyer — which will likely be the highest bidder, the industrial gas company Messer — will claim some 425 miles of pipelines spanning Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, plus about 1 billion cubic feet of the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work.

Helium is known as a noble gas that is get produced underground with the help of the radioactive decay of heavy elements. The main commercial source of helium is known as natural gas, which contains an average of. Helium.

There's a finite amount of helium on Earth. The largest reserves are in massive underground pockets in parts of Algeria, Qatar, Russia and the U.S. While the Texas stockpile is the largest source of helium in the U.S., it's not the only one.

Helium is mined along with natural gas, using a drill rig to drill wells deep into the earth's crust. A drill rig must penetrate a layer called the Cap Rock to reach a natural gas reserve.

There's a finite amount of helium on Earth. The largest reserves are in massive underground pockets in parts of Algeria, Qatar, Russia and the U.S.

According to Nobel laureate Prof Robert Richardson of Cornell University, the US supplies 80 per cent of the helium used in the world at a very cheap rate and these supplies will run out in 25 to 30 years' time.

Scientists estimate that, at the current rate of global consumption, there is a supply of helium for 100-200 more years. There are only a handful of significant sources of helium in the world — the U.S., Qatar, Algeria and Russia, chief among them.