Helium Sustainability

A couple of years ago there was a paper which argued that 26% of all extractable copper may already be in use or in landfill waste. Such is humanity's demand for the element. Helium is another constrained resource.

From the article:

"When they stick that straw into the ground to suck out oil and gas, the helium comes out, and if it doesn't get captured it drifts into the atmosphere and is lost," Sobotka said. "Helium production is a side industry to oil and natural gas, an endeavor that nobody wants to lose money on."

Meanwhile, laboratories worldwide could make better attempts at conserving helium. They can either use costly machines called liquefiers that can capture, store and reliquefy helium on site, or researchers can take captured helium in gas form, return it to the company that originally sold it to them and receive a monetary return, just as in a deposit on a bottle.

"We have to be thinking of these things," he said. "Up to now, the issue often hasn't risen to the level that it's important. It's a problem for the next generation of scientists. But it's incumbent upon us to have a vision, and tell it like it is -- a resource that is more strictly non-renewable than either oil or gas."

Interesting.

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