
Helium Shortage Is Hurting Parties and the Pharma Industry - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-11/helium-shortage-is-hurting-parties-and-the-pharma-industry
======
dang
Also [https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/10/helium-
short...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/10/helium-shortage-
could-deflate-mris-manufacturing-and-research/1169464001/), via
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19888138](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19888138).

------
PaulAJ
One thing about helium: once its released to the atmosphere its gone forever.
Because it is so light it not only heads upwards, the velocity of the atoms is
high enough that some exceed the Earth's escape velocity and don't come down.
The only helium on Earth is either in tanks or still underground.

Its a finite resource, we are using it up, and we can never make any more
until we get to the outer planets.

~~~
nordsieck
> One thing about helium: once its released to the atmosphere its gone
> forever. Because it is so light it not only heads upwards, the velocity of
> the atoms is high enough that some exceed the Earth's escape velocity and
> don't come down.

I'm all for preserving helium, but sensationalist BS doesn't help.

> On the surface of the Earth, the escape velocity is about 11.2 km/s

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity)

The thermal velocity (at room temperature) of He is 1.245 km/s

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_velocity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_velocity)

There is no way that Helium reaches escape velocity without some sort of
mechanical assistance.

I've heard it theorized that Helium, because it is prone to float at the outer
edges of the atmosphere, is particularly susceptible to being stripped away by
solar winds. I don't have sufficient expertise to evaluate this claim, but it
seems at least plausible. This can't be happening very much, though, or our
atmosphere would much more closely resemble that of Mars, which lacks a
protective magnetosphere.

~~~
martinpw
> There is no way that Helium reaches escape velocity without some sort of
> mechanical assistance.

Thermal velocity is an average - there is a distribution of velocities around
this average. It says that right in the article you linked to.

At the high end of the distribution, some Helium atoms will indeed have
velocities greater than the Earth's escape velocity.

~~~
liuhenry
I had this impression as well, but there's something else going on. If you run
the numbers, at T=293, there's a negligible fraction above 5 km/s. The
atmospheric loss models typically use an exosphere temperature of T=1000, but
again, negligible fraction above 10 km/s.

However, there were some contradictions I couldn't immediately understand.
This source [1] says "Only about one in a million helium atoms is lost from
Earth via Jeans’ escape.". But it also cites a plot from [2] showing the rule-
of-thumb for Jeans' escape: 1/6th the escape velocity vs the RMS thermal
velocity. In this case, He has an RMS velocity of 2.5 km/s at T=1000, which is
greater than 1.9 km/s.

[1]
[https://geosci.uchicago.edu/~kite/doc/Catling2009.pdf](https://geosci.uchicago.edu/~kite/doc/Catling2009.pdf)
[2]
[http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~kite/doc/Catling_and_Kasting_ch_...](http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~kite/doc/Catling_and_Kasting_ch_5.pdf)

~~~
martinpw
Agreed the article is not very clear. From the context of the surrounding
paragraph though, I think it means one in a million helium atoms is lost via
Jeans’ escape _every year_. Which would obviously be quite a significant
factor on any geological timescale.

------
bayesian_horse
As far as I have understood it, the US government was selling off helium
stockpiles cheaply for the last 20 years, and now the consumers aren't
willing/able to pay prices high enough to encourage production to rise quickly
enough...

~~~
gpapilion
Yes I was curious why cost were so low yet there was a shortage.

------
nradov
The increased price of helium has also made it much more expensive to do deep
scuba dives. More divers are buying closed circuit rebreathers, which are
expensive and risky, but have the advantage of conserving helium.

~~~
rhinoceraptor
OT, but I think you might find this link interesting:

[https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/Media-Center/Press-
Releases/2015...](https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/Media-Center/Press-
Releases/2015/Oxygen-Toxicity-Navy-Divers)

~~~
nradov
Thanks that's interesting. However as sport divers we're not required to take
risks the way military divers have to in order to accomplish their missions.
So rather than taking drugs which might or might not work, it's safer to just
limit oxygen exposure even if that makes decompression times a bit longer.

~~~
rhinoceraptor
I think the exciting part of the research is that ketone salts aren’t really a
drug, they’re a dietary supplement to reproduce the metabolic effects of the
ketogenic diet.

------
Per_Bothner
Helium party balloons are Evil. They escape and end up as non-decomposable
trash in the wilderness. This is not a theoretic concern: I usually find one
or more every year.

~~~
ars
Only the mylar ones, and the string.

Normal latex balloons are biodegradable.

~~~
EForEndeavour
Normal latex balloons take 6 months to 4 years to biodegrade, which is plenty
of time to ruin scenery and choke a curious animal.
[https://encenter.org/visit-us/programs/birthday-
parties/ball...](https://encenter.org/visit-us/programs/birthday-
parties/balloons/)

------
Animats
The price of helium doubled about five years ago. That's why Airship Ventures,
the people with the blimp over Silicon Valley, shut down.

~~~
m-p-3
Just fill it up with hydrogen, that should do it.

~~~
perilunar
Well everyone immediately thinks of the Hindenburg, but the Graf Zeppelin flew
1.7 million km and 590 flights over 9 years until it was scrapped for its
aluminium.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin)

~~~
dredmorbius
R101 ... didn't.

[https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/airlines/a16637939/b...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/airlines/a16637939/british-
airship-r101-engineering/)

------
pfdietz
One proposed energy storage technology is via liquid air. Air would be
liquefied at times of surplus power, then warmed to room temperature and
expanded to generate power later.

If adopted on a large scale, tremendous volumes of air will be liquefied
daily. One can imagine tapping this stream to extract the helium, which will
remain gaseous.

~~~
loeg
He is like 0.0005% of air. This seems impractical.

~~~
ars
Neon is 0.001818 (only about 3 or 4 times as much) and yet we collect it.

You don't really need much helium for what it's used for, it could work -
prices would go up, but we wouldn't run out.

------
Lowkeyloki
I reject the thesis of this article. Specifically that a shortage of helium,
and therefore balloons, is hurting parties. Not even at a child's birthday
party would I think, "Where are all the balloons? This party SUCKS!!!"

~~~
unfunco
A child might think that though, and if it's your child that is upset, it'd be
natural to empathise, regardless of whether or not you think balloons are
beneath you. Balloons generally aren't there for adults.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
If your kid loves balloons so much why not fill them with air and tape them to
the walls? That's what parents generally did when I was a kid.

~~~
EForEndeavour
Better yet, fill party balloons with hydrogen gas and light 'em off at the
end.

~~~
NikkiA
Filling party balloons with methane is pretty much standard in south asia from
what I've seen; it carries risks, but it also gives the fun of getting rid of
the balloons explosively.

------
protomyth
Can someone explain why we have a shortage? I'm a little confused given
current drilling in the US.

~~~
mikestew
_Can someone explain why we have a shortage?_

That would normally be the job of the journalist that wrote the article.
‘dafuq, Bloomberg? “You know, _the helium shortage_.” No, I don’t know,
Bloomberg. Is it related to the sell-off of U. S. helium reserves a while
back? Or is it something different this time?

Instead, we get “will your kids get balloons at their party this year?” Oh,
and some brief mention about pharma, but we don’t really know how that works,
so...yeah.

~~~
bonestamp2
Ya, when I was a kid, we had balloons, but they didn't have helium in them.
They just had DLA (dad lung air). This year, my kids didn't have helium
balloons either... they just had DLA. They didn't care at all, maybe didn't
even notice the difference. So ya, who cares about party usage -- the shortage
itself is the real story. They buried the lead so deep they forgot to dig it
up.

~~~
foobarian
Gave me incentive to make hydrogen balloons from lye+Al reaction. Work just as
well and then you get to blow them up later!

~~~
bonestamp2
That sounds interesting. Is it reasonably safe to have hydrogen balloons
around at a kid's party? Any major dangers to watch out for besides the
obvious proximity to candles?

------
Arbalest
Here in Australia (and perhaps elsewhere), the high altitude balloons used to
measure upper atmosphere currents (aka radiosondes) use Hydrogen[0] for the
balloons. They launch them often enough that they can justify the hydrogen
generation and handling equipment, which has, as you may expect, more
stringent requirements.

[0] [http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-
working/stations/dav...](http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-
working/stations/davis/this-week-at-davis/2017/this-week-at-
davis-28-april-2017/the-davis-hydrogen-generator)

~~~
NikkiA
Generating hydrogen is very easy, there are numerous acid+metal and
alkaline+metal processes that aren't expensive or use anything like rare
materials. So as long as the exposure is such that explosive risks are
minimal, it's a good option for lighter-than-air needs.

It's not, of course, much of an option for cryogenic processes where helium is
required.

------
alex_young
I don't understand how there is a helium shortage and not a natural gas
shortage. Doesn't helium come as a byproduct of natural gas?

------
BurningFrog
The market solves this (partially) by investors foreseeing the shortage and
buying up stockpiles before they increase in value.

One problem is that when they later sell it these investors are often
demonized as profiteers and speculators, and occasionally strung up in
lampposts. Perhaps less so for this kind of goods.

------
driverdan
This is a poorly written article that doesn't any cite sources or data.

Is it demand increasing prices or an actual shortage?

------
desireco42
This will be known as age where people wasted Helium on stupid things. We
might need it in the future.

~~~
qrbLPHiKpiux
Remember that Red Bull sponsored space free-fall dive off of that platform?
Brought to you by helium - that's how he got to space.

~~~
zamadatix
The stratosphere is quite a ways from space. Also what is the point you're
trying to make? I don't think anyone on either side of the argument is very
concerned with a one time world record attempt from 2012 when talking about
helium conservation in 2019.

------
ourmandave
The helium shortage is a production problem.

At the current usage rate its estimated we have a 200 year supply left.

~~~
throwaway2048
This is true, helium is present in basically all natural gas wells (it
emanates from radioactive decay deep in the earth, and gets trapped in the
same spots natural gas does).

Currently it is just vented out into the air, because capture isn't
profitable.

------
whotheffknows
Oh. I thought you were going to say hurting the electronics industry as well.

------
kemiller
Another reason to get DT fusion working.

