Will We Run out of Helium? (2024)

FAQs

Will We Run out of Helium? ›

Yes, the Earth is running out of helium because it is a nonrenewable resource. This is how Total Helium brings value to its investors and other stakeholders, by performing the important work of helium exploration and storage. Helium is the second most abundant element

“However, the good news is that we're not running out of helium,” Trønnes says. The Earth's interior is absolutely enormous, and this is where the helium comes from. “It will continue to seep out through rocks and cracks forever,” he says.

If our supply ran out, it could spell the end of MRI testing, LCD screens and birthday party balloons. Or it could make all of those things much more expensive. Although argon — another inert gas — can be substituted for helium for welding purposes, no other element can do what helium can do in super cold applications.

Scientists estimate that, at the current rate of global consumption, there is a supply of helium for 100-200 more years. There are only a handful of significant sources of helium in the world — the U.S., Qatar, Algeria and Russia, chief among them.

Argon can be used instead of Helium and is favoured for some metals. Helium is used for many lighter-than-air applications, and Hydrogen is a possible substitute for many where the flammability of Hydrogen is not a concern.

The United States' reserves were purchased in 1925 and will be gone in only a hundred years from getting it. Once the Helium is released into the atmosphere it is gone forever. There is no chemical way of manufacturing Helium. The reserves the U.S. has came from very slow radioactive alpha decay that occurs in rock.

Luckily for us, some of helium-4 gets entrapped and mixes with the natural gas found under layers beneath the earth's surface. Helium-4 is then extracted from the ground with wells drilled to release it. The amount of helium gas that can be found in the natural gas varies from almost negligible to 4% by its volume.

Another reason for a ban calling to end all helium balloons is that the gas, helium, is becoming scare. Once it is used up, there is no way to create more helium. It is a non-renewable resource. Many feel that the remaining Earth's helium should be used for more important uses, industrial, medical and scientific.

Helium is the second-most-abundant element in the universe, but on Earth it's relatively rare. It results from the decay of uranium, can't be artificially created, and is produced as a byproduct of natural gas refinement.

Liquid helium, the coldest element on Earth, is needed to keep the magnets in MRI machines running. Without it, doctors would lose a critical medical tool.

Are balloons a waste of helium? ›

Do we waste helium? This really depends on what one means by 'wasting', but in a simple sense, yes… nearly all the helium we use is done in a one-time fashion that is then released to the atmosphere. Balloons are obvious, but use of helium in MRIs and superconducting magnets also allows for the escape of the helium.

By the 1990s, Congress decided it had spent too much on the stockpile and directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to start selling it off. The agency did so at below market rates, which some say discouraged private companies from expanding their own helium operations.

NASA uses helium to keep hot gases and ultra-cold liquid fuel separated during lift-off of rockets. Arc welding uses helium to create an inert gas shield. Similarly, divers and others working under pressure can use a mix of helium and oxygen to create a safe artificial breathing atmosphere.

Helium can be found in abundance all over the universe. In fact, it is the second most abundant element known to man. Because of its chemical composition, it is not possible to produce helium artificially, which is why it is extracted from natural gas wells.

So there you have it—balloons can indeed float without helium, but they work differently and have some drawbacks. If you want your balloon to float for a long time and stay in one place, then you're better off using helium. But if you're in a pinch and don't have any handy, then hot air will do the trick!

The unique properties of helium make it difficult to replace in certain applications, especially those that require high sensitivity and accuracy. One solution to the helium shortage is the implementation of helium recovery and purification systems, such as the PURE helium recovery system.

Like all stars, a churning fusion engine fuels the sun, and it still has a lot of fuel left — about 5 billion years' worth.

Perhaps the most familiar use of helium is as a safe, non-flammable gas to fill party and parade balloons. However, helium is a critical component in many fields, including scientific research, medical technology, high-tech manufacturing, space exploration, and national defense.

The Earth additionally loses approximately 50 g/s of helium primarily through polar wind escape. Escape of other atmospheric constituents is much smaller. A Japanese research team in 2017 found evidence of a small number of oxygen ions on the moon that came from the Earth.

Each day, around 90 tonnes of hydrogen and helium escape from Earth in the direction of space – but don't panic; at this rate, we've still got enough to last another 150 billion years. Our neighbour Mars is in a less enviable position. Today, its atmosphere is one hundred times less dense than that of our planet.