# Where do we get Helium from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2001, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509 "2001-07-14T21:08:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![renigademaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@renigademaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/renigademaster)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2001, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/1 "2001-07-14T21:08:15Z")
I know that helium is the biproduct of nuclear reactions (thermonuclear and alpha particle decay) but were to the companies obtain commercial helium for baloons blimps, lasers… ect? Are there natural pockets in the earth from decayed radioactive sorces, or is it extracted from the atmosphere? I know that helium is one of the harder gasses to get from the atmosphere, and do not see how they could obtain the massive quanities that have been and are being used. Thanks, Ben ---
**Author:** ![choosybeggar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@choosybeggar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choosybeggar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2001, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/2 "2001-07-14T21:14:26Z")
From [Encyclopedia.com:](http://www.encyclopedia.com/articlesnew/05786NaturalOccurrenceandPreparation.html) > [@](#): > > Helium is rare and costly. Wells in Texas (where the Federal Helium Reserve was established in 1925 near Amarillo), Oklahoma, and Kansas are the principal world source. Crude helium is separated by liquefying the other gases present in the natural gas; it is then either further purified or stored for later purification and use. Some helium is extracted directly from the atmosphere; the gas is also found in certain uranium minerals and in some mineral waters, but not in economic quantities ---
**Author:** ![sethdallob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@sethdallob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sethdallob)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/3 "2001-07-14T21:16:41Z")
IANAChemist, but I’m sure that someone will come by and write some fancy chemical reaction that looks something like this: Molecule1 + oodles of energy + fairy dust --\> He[sub]2[/sub] + chocolate sprinkles + some ugly toxic chemical I’m sure that your favorite chemical company (Dow Chemical, etc.) makes this stuff wholesale. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2001, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/4 "2001-07-14T21:31:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sethdallob \* > \*\*IANAChemist, but I’m sure that someone will come by and write some fancy chemical reaction that looks something like this: > > Molecule1 + oodles of energy + fairy dust --\> He[sub]2[/sub] + chocolate sprinkles + some ugly toxic chemical > > I’m sure that your favorite chemical company (Dow Chemical, etc.) makes this stuff wholesale. \*\* Since helium does not form any known chemical compound (nor does it form diatomic molecules, for that matter), this would not be the case. **Choosybeggar** is correct, of course. Interestingly, the escape velocity for Earth (11.2 km/s) is less than the typical velocity reached by helium atoms in the atmosphere. This means that the Earth’s atmosphere is constantly “leaking” helium (as well as hydrogen gas). This is a Good Thing[sup]TM[/sup], because the planets that were massive enough to hold onto these two most common elements ended up as the large gas types of planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The others, including Earth, are relatively small and rocky. In any event, this is why helium is present in such low concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere, despite being the 2nd most common element in the Universe. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2001, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/5 "2001-07-14T21:38:38Z")
I don’t know if I’d say “rare and costly” - after all, a tank of it doesn’t cost all that much, and there seems to be plenty of it available for party favors and talking in squeaky voices: For [http://www.weblements.com](http://www.weblements.com) : > [@](#): > > There is very little helium on earth as nearly all present during and immediately after the earth’s formation has long since been lost as it is so light. Just about all the helium remaining on the planet is the result of radioactive decay. While there is some helium in the atmosphere, currently its isolation from that source by liquefaction and separation of air is not normally economic. This is bacause it is easier, and cheaper, to isolate the gas from certain natural gases. Concentrations of helium in natural gas in the USA are as high as 7% and other good sources include natural gas from some sources in Poland. It is isolable from these gases by liquefaction and separation of from the natural gas. This would not normally be carried out in the laboratory and helium is available commercially in cylinders under pressure. Actually, I just wanted to remind people that webelements is a terrific reference for everything having to do with the periodic table and properties / uses of elements in general. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2001, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/6 "2001-07-14T21:54:35Z")
And it helps to spell it right - [http://www.webelements.com](http://www.webelements.com) Added factoid - according to them, the Earth (crustal rocks) is 5.5 parts / billion He by weight, 30 ppb by count of atoms. That’s pretty small, but there are rarer naturally occuring elements - Tellurium, for example, at 1 ppb by weight. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2001, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/7 "2001-07-14T22:43:13Z")
the master speaks [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_277.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_277.html) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/8 "2001-07-15T01:31:08Z")
To tell the truth, I’m surprised helium isn’t more rare and costly. It seems mazing to me that there’s as much on earth as there is, since al we have is the result of radoactive decay that happened to be flushed into bowls of impermeable roc. What about the rest of it, that doesn’t go into impermeable rock so we can pump it out of oil wells? It eventually floats up to the top of the atmosphere and gets kicked into space, never to return. Way back, folks working the the sciences realized that the supply was finite, and decided to try to recapture it. I’ve worked in a building with such a helium recapture plumbing system. It wasn’t being used. He is too cheap. But this will come back to haunt us on day. We’re using Helium to fill mylar birthday balloons and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons and to make our voices squeaky. Someday we’re gonna want that Helium. Not just for lighter-than-air ships (althogh some guys are working to eradicate our fears of Hydrogen by claiming tha the Hindenburg was really a safe ship), but because Helium cooling and Heium refrigerators allow you to go to super-low temperatures, which we’ll need for the supercomputers o the future. Hyrogen can’t get as low (nothing else can get as low), and I think that, regardless of how safe the Hindenberg really was, people are going to continue to be leery of hydrogen-cooled supercomputers. Mark my words, one day Bill Gates will be subsidizing voyages to the Gas Giants for the sole purpose of mining Helium. ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/9 "2001-07-15T01:35:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*To tell the truth, I’m surprised helium isn’t more rare and costly. It seems mazing to me that there’s as much on earth as there is, since al we have is the result of radoactive decay that happened to be flushed into bowls of impermeable roc. \*\* There’s a hell of a lot of rock on this earth. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/10 "2001-07-15T03:24:32Z")
From “Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Chemistry Division’s Periodic Table of the Elements” > [@](#): > > **History** > (Gr. helios, the sun). Janssen obtained the first evidence of helium during the solar eclipse of 1868 when he detected a new line in the solar spectrum. Lockyer and Frankland suggested the name helium for the new element. In 1895 Ramsay discovered helium in the uranium mineral clevite while it was independently discovered in cleveite by the Swedish chemists Cleve and Langlet at about the same time. Rutherford and Royds in 1907 demonstrated that alpha particles are helium nuclei. > > **Sources** > Except for hydrogen, helium is the most abundant element found through out the universe. Helium is extracted from natural gas. In fact, all natural gas contains at least trace quantities of helium. > > It has been detected spectroscopically in great abundance, especially in the hotter stars, and it is an important component in both the proton-proton reaction and the carbon cycle, which account for the energy of the sun and stars. > > The fusion of hydrogen into helium provides the energy of the hydrogen bomb. The helium content of the atmosphere is about 1 part in 200,000. While it is present in various radioactive minerals as a decay product, the bulk of the Free World’s supply is obtained from wells in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The only known helium extraction plants, outside the United States, in 1984 were in Eastern Europe (Poland), the USSR, and a few in India. > > **Cost** > The cost of helium fell from $2500/ft[sup]3[/sup] in 1915 to 1.5 cents /ft[sup]3[/sup] in 1940. The U.S. Bureau of Mines has set the price of Grade A helium at $37.50/1000 ft[sup]3[/sup] in 1986. > > **Properties** > Helium has the lowest melting point of any element and is widely used in cryogenic research because its boiling point is close to absolute zero. Also, the element is vital in the study of super conductivity. > > Using liquid helium, Kurti and co-workers and others, have succeeded in obtaining temperatures of a few microkelvins by the adiabatic demagnetization of copper nuclei. > > It has other peculiar properties. Helium is the only liquid that cannot be solidified by lowering the temperature. It remains liquid down to absolute zero at ordinary pressures, but it can readily be solidified by increasing the pressure. Solid 3He and 4He are unusual in that both can be changed in volume by more than 30% by applying pressure. > > The specific heat of helium gas is unusually high. The density of helium vapor at the normal boiling point is also very high, with the vapor expanding greatly when heated to room temperature. Containers filled with helium gas at 5 to 10 K should be treated as though they contained liquid helium due to the large increase in pressure resulting from warming the gas to room temperature. > > While helium normally has a 0 valence, it seems to have a weak tendency to combine with certain other elements. Means of preparing helium difluoride have been studied, and species such as HeNe and the molecular ions He+ and He++ have been investigated. > > **Isotopes** > Seven isotopes of helium are known: Liquid helium (He4) exists in two forms: He4I and He4II, with a sharp transition point at 2.174K. He4I (above this temperature) is a normal liquid, but He4II (below it) is unlike any other known substance. It expands on cooling; its conductivity for heat is enormous; and neither its heat conduction nor viscosity obeys normal rules. > > **Uses** > as an inert gas shield for arc welding; > a protective gas in growing silicon and germanium crystals and producing titanium and zirconium; > as a cooling medium for nuclear reactors, and > as a gas for supersonic wind tunnels. > A mixture of helium and oxygen is used as an artificial atmosphere for divers and others working under pressure. Different ratios of He/O[sub]2[/sub] are used for different depths at which the diver is operating. > > Helium is extensively used for filling balloons as it is a much safer gas than hydrogen. One of the recent largest uses for helium has been for pressuring liquid fuel rockets. A Saturn booster, like the type used on the Apollo lunar missions, required about 13 million ft3 of helium for a firing, plus more for checkouts. > > Liquid helium’s use in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) continues to increase as the medical profession accepts and develops new uses for the equipment. This equipment has eliminated some need for exploratory surgery by accurately diagnosing patients. Another medical application uses MRE to determine (by blood analysis) whether a patient has any form of cancer. > > Helium is also being used to advertise on blimps for various companies, including Goodyear. Other lifting gas applications are being developed by the Navy and Air Force to detect low-flying cruise missiles. Additionally, the Drug Enforcement Agency is using radar-equipped blimps to detect drug smugglers along the United States boarders. In addition, NASA is currently using helium-filled balloons to sample the atmosphere in Antarctica to determine what is depleting the ozone layer. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-we-get-helium-from/72509/11 "2001-07-15T04:00:59Z")
That reminds me of a story. A true story. I know it’s true because I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who was there. A group of department store employees are working before the store opens, setting up a display. The display involves filling balloons with helium. Inevitably they start inhaling the helium and laughing at their squeaky voices. One of them gets the bright idea that the boss would be amused if he went over and talked to him in a squeaky voice. So he inhales a large quantity of helium and starts to walk over to the boss’s station, which is quite a distance away. He’s holding his breath and his lungs are full, so he doesn’t realize he’s not getting any oxygen. He’s almost to the boss when he passes out and keels over. The boss sees him and runs over to revive him. “Are you all right? Are you all right?” he shouts. The employee, coming to, answers with a top-of-the-line squeaky voice, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Contrary to expectations, the boss was not amused.