Helium Discovery A 'game-Changer'

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36651048

I have very little scientific learning or training. Why can't we manufacture helium if we need it so bad ?

[jim360]

Manufacturing helium how, exactly? I don't believe that there are that many chemical reactions that could do the job (essentially because a chemical reaction would have to rely on compounds that already contain helium, and these don't exist, certainly not in natural conditions). So that leaves radioactive processes, either fusion or fission. Fusion is energy-intensive, fission less so, but in both cases you need large quantities of the starting product to get much usable helium. In either case, it's more practical to rely on natural resources.

I think usable helium might be a by-product of fusion power stations, but since we don't have any of those yet either...

[EDDIE51]

The only way to 'Manufacture' Helium (which is an Element not a compound remember) would be to create on Earth the conditions which exist in the core of stars , such as the Sun. In a star Hydrogen is fused to form Helium which gives the heat and light, the pressures and temperatures needed are beyond the comprehension of most people. This is what Nuclear Fusion research is about, IF we ever manage to do it , all our energy problems will be solved for all eternity. Limitless power for ever!!
Just to add the Helium we do have on Earth is so light that once released it floats upwards and ends up being lost into space from the top of the atmosphere.

[mikey4444]

Thanks guys. It just that I seem to recall that we manufacture or maybe extract Oxygen and Hydrogen, for use in industry.

[jim360]

Yes, but then those exist in compounds, which means that the manufacture proceeds, for example, by a reaction that breaks up one of the compounds to release hydrgen on its own; one such being (methane + water) going to (carbon monoxide + hydrogen), or simply electrolysis breaking up water.

[mikey4444]

Once again...thanks !

[wolf63]

Is Helim not the gas in balloons and makes silly voices ?

[Old_Geezer]

Oh it's simple. You take two protons and stick two neutrons to them. Then to find a couple of electrons and have them hang around the bit you already made. Do this about 10^26 times and you should have a nice ballon's worth.
Voila !

[EDDIE51]

Wolf63 Yes, Helium is the 'Balloon Gas'

[EDDIE51]

Note the details in the link. The find could be as much as 54,000,000 Cu ft which will supply our needs for 'Several Years' . Here on Earth we are still very short of the 2nd most abundant Element in the universe! This will last 10 years at most.
Without Helium MRI scanners will not work, can we afford to waste it on 'Party Balloons'?

[ParsleyDumpling]

I use helium in work as one if the gases in a gas chromatograph (the others being hydrogen and compressed air). My company pays over £700 for a cylinder. Balloon gas is not pure helium, and is a lot cheaper to buy.

[EDDIE51]

Yes Balloon gas is not pure Helium, as you say it would be far too expensive to fill party balloons with pure Helium. But Balloon gas is still a wasteful way to use a valuable resource, it could be purified and used in medicine or science.

[theprof]

Yes, high purity helium is extremely expensive and the price is increasing annually. My laboratories use piped high purity helium for both GC and other applications and we get annual reports from the faculty bean-counters pointing out the high cost. To date, they've not restricted us but it's something we need to keep in mind.

To some extent, we're fortunate as we send researchers with likely high usage requirements to the university science park research laboratories and they pick up the bill!

Some government research laboratories use a good amount of high purity helium daily and I've been known to run the odd GC analysis in such places myself.

[tandh]

why on earth are we wasting it on balloons if its so good then?

and to all the people that gave a scientific answer - how do you know all this!?

[Mamyalynne]

They is proper clever Tandh.

[Hypognosis]

So many people did the same degree as I did that all the job vacancies I could find were specifying 5 years' experience in GC or some other hurdle which meant I couldn't get in.

A couple of years later, they played switcheroo and started insisting on "recent graduate", as if knowledge goes stale or something.

Not that I'm bitter, or anything…
{seethe}

[Ianfiat]

The amount used in balloons is actually quite small, 4g of helium is about 24 litres of gas, so 5 balloons or so- a single mri scanner will uses hundreds if not thousands of Kilos of helium a year. A thousand kilos of helium would fill 1.2 billion balloons