The element is indispensable to numerous high-tech applications

Jan 13, 2014 18:01 GMT  ·  By

New research published by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) suggests that the world needs new major technological advances to safeguard its dwindling helium supplies. The element is absolutely critical to a number of applications, including semiconductors, medical devices and spacecraft flying to Earth's orbits and beyond. 

According to geologists, more than 99.997 percent of all helium that once existed on our planet has been lost to space over the eons. Currently, our only sources for the element are underground deposits, which are quickly being exhausted through over-exploitation.

The long-term supply of helium has been under threat for decades, but scientists recently managed to adopt a series of innovations that saw these fears subside. However, the threat has only been postponed by a little, not entirely removed. Additional breakthroughs are needed to alleviate these concerns.

Large deposits of the element were discovered underground in the United States in the early 1900s, so helium has been used in bulk ever since. It is now an essential cooling agent for spacecraft, as well as for critical medical devices including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines.

Over the past few years, underground helium supplies have begun to decline, prompting new concerns for the international scientific community. One way to alleviate the upcoming crisis is to boost helium recovery rates from natural gas. The latter produces helium when liquefied, but half the amounts are lost in the process, IChemE reports.

“As the conventional US helium reserves diminish this decade, it is critical that the best helium recovery technologies are brought into production in the natural gas industry. Helium that is not separated and stored at source is lost and remains out of reach,” says IChemE fellow Richard Clarke.

Earth's atmosphere continues to remain the largest low-density helium deposit on the planet, holding around 3.8 billion tons of the element. However, extracting it is technologically and economically unfeasible due to very low concentration levels.

““Helium concentration levels in the air are low at just 5.2 parts per million. Another challenge for chemical engineers is to create a sustainable and economic supply of helium from the air. We are just beginning, but progress is being made with emerging technologies that can extract helium from air successfully,” Clarke explains further.

According to statistics, the world requires around 30,000 tons of helium per year. In addition to extracting the element from the ground or air, other methods of prolonging its use include recycling, using helium more efficiently, or replacing it with other chemicals or materials.