# Where/how do the they get helium?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 24, 2006, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796 "2006-07-24T08:27:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/1 "2006-07-24T08:27:26Z")
There’s not much in the atmosphere, and we haven’t nailed controlled fusion yet, so where did the helium that fills balloons and blimps come from?
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/2 "2006-07-24T09:04:32Z")
What’s with all the helium questions? Is it something in the air?
Helium is present underground on earth, where it can be extracted before it escapes the atmosphere. It is a constituent in some sources of natural gas. It is possible to collect it from the atmosphere, but the cost is prohibitively high.
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium)
Some from google:
[http://yarchive.net/chem/helium\_source.html](http://yarchive.net/chem/helium_source.html)
> **[Periodic Table of Elements](https://www.corrosionsource.com/FreeContent/1/Periodic%20Table)**
>
> periodic table, easy-to-navigate, comprehensive, elements, corrosion, materials, oil gas production, cracking, chemical process industry, corrosion information, corrosion, materials
[http://darwin.nap.edu/openbook.php?record\_id=9860&page=40](http://darwin.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9860&page=40)
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/3 "2006-07-24T09:14:06Z")
Excellent links, thanks.
> [@second link](#):
>
> The original separation process (US Bur. Mines Inf. Circ 6745 (19933))
> involved removal of carbon dioxide and then moisture and some of the
> hydrocarbons by cooling followed by cooling to -190 under pressures of
> some 2500 psi to liquefy nitrogen and give a helium gas of about 98%
> purity. I am sure the procedure has been slicked up a bit since.
Surely all natural gas isn’t still subjected to these extremes?
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/4 "2006-07-24T11:34:25Z")
Helium is one of the products of radioactive decay, so they tend to find it along with uranium and other such elements.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/5 "2006-07-24T19:28:29Z")
> [@Eleusis](#):
>
> Excellent links, thanks.
> Surely all natural gas isn’t still subjected to these extremes?
No, there are certain wells known to produce an appreciable percentage of He. Presumably only the gas from those would be so treated.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/6 "2006-07-24T19:41:54Z")
[How do they make helium? It’s an inert gas!](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_277.html)
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### Author:  [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/7 "2006-07-24T20:09:32Z")
Note that the US pretty much has a corner on the world helium supply. Arabs got the oil, Russian’s got the Titaninium, and we got the Helium.
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/8 "2006-07-24T20:14:29Z")
> [@Kevbo](#):
>
> Note that the US pretty much has a corner on the world helium supply.
A fact which introduced the expression “O the humanities” into our culture.
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### Author:  [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/9 "2006-07-24T20:32:57Z")
> [@Kevbo](#):
>
> Note that the US pretty much has a corner on the world helium supply. Arabs got the oil, Russian’s got the Titaninium, and we got the Helium.
Not for long. The natural gas the contains appreciable amounts of helium is being burned off just like any natural gas. When it’s burned, the helium escapes to the atmosphere and can’t be reclaimed (without tremendous amounts of effort). Yet the government has disbanded the Bureau of Mines helium plant and there are only a couple of private companies producing helium. The federal helium deposit will be sold off in 2015 IIRC.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/10 "2006-07-24T20:56:27Z")
> [@Kevbo](#):
>
> Arabs got the oil
Actually, the Middle East has only 50% of the world’s proven oil reserve, and if you subtract the non-Arabs (i.e., Iran), the Arabs have less than 50%.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/11 "2006-07-25T01:16:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> A fact which introduced the expression “O the humanities” into our culture.
A common misconception. The Hindenberg burned not because of the hydrogen it was filled with, but because of the rocket fuel the skin was painted with. The disaster would have been just as bad if it had been filled with helium.
And besides, the expression was “Oh, the humanity”, singular. The humanities are literature, history, and other such subjects.
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### Author:  [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-how-do-the-they-get-helium/365796/12 "2006-07-25T04:31:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> A common misconception. The Hindenberg burned not because of the hydrogen it was filled with, but because of the rocket fuel the skin was painted with. The disaster would have been just as bad if it had been filled with helium.
I was reading about airships recently and apparently the [Bain Incendary-Paint Theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison_Bain) is somewhat [controversial](http://spot.colorado.edu/~dziadeck/zf/LZ129fire.htm) still.