How much helium is left
- how is helium collected
- how is helium collected from the environment
- how is helium gas collected
- how is helium produced
Can helium be made artificially...
How Is Helium Extracted, and Are We Running Out?
Helium may be the second most abundant gas in the universe, but it is also the second lightest, making it easy to slip right out of the earth’s atmosphere.
While outer space is overflowing with Helium, its presence deep under the earth’s crust makes it difficult to harvest.
How Is Helium Extracted?
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.
How is helium produced commercially
Once located, the natural gas and Helium rise and fill the rig, which are then led through a series of piping systems that transport the natural gas and crude Helium to a refining plant.
Most crude Helium tapped from natural gas reserves is only around 50% pure, so other gases must be separated through a scrubbing process.
There is a significant amount of Nitrogen in crude Helium, as well as methane gases that must be removed. Cryogenic separation units compress the crude Helium, cooling the gases at subzero temperatures until they are liqui
- how is helium harvested
- how is helium produced commercially