More bad news for helium prices?

[boulderjohn]

Actually, all commercial helium is of very high purity, because what they sell in cylinders is the boiloff from the liquefaction process. At those temperatures any contaminant has long frozen out and is trivially removed. That's why there is no low-purity, unsuitable for breathing, helium in the market.

Tell that to airgas. They intentionally lost a customer who was spending a pretty fair amount of change with them, and they lost that customer by refusing to sell to him for that stated reason.

 

[cmburch]

The US has the largest He storage in the world. It is a byproduct of natural gas. We get liquid He dirt cheap for low temperature research. We are the the world leader.

 

[dmaziuk]

Yes, helium recycling makes sense. 30 years ago we had a home-brew system that was a bunch of PVC pipes leading to an enormous rubber bladder (think "bouncy house"). When the giant balloon was full, a compressor / purification / liquifaction system kicked in to put the genie back into the bottle. That system was eventually junked (when He prices were fairly low.) The systems for scientific equipment have gotten more compact and efficient (but are very expensive.)

The one being assembled in the spectrometer basement here consists of a bunch of copper pipes leading to 3 enormous bouncy house bladders. It is not exactly cheap. The more things change...

 

[sea_ledford]

I ended up ordering from praxair. I have yet to see any helium that is less than 5 9's pure, but if they ask what I am using it for, I get nervous due to the "we can't sell it to you for that" response.

Same thing with O2. I have to get aviators or "diving" O2. I can't get medical because apparently I need, not a prescription, but a medical license! I'm sure the ER docs are running to airgas to pick up the O2 for the hospital

-Chris

 

[KevinNM]

Same thing with O2. I have to get aviators or "diving" O2. I can't get medical because apparently I need, not a prescription, but a medical license! I'm sure the ER docs are running to airgas to pick up the O2 for the hospital

Nah, they deliver it to us in a huge semi hauling LOX.

We actually get our O2 cylinders delivered filled from one of the home medical gas suppliers despite having a huge set of LOX tanks out by the generator farm in back. Don't know why, complexly different department.

 

[oldschoolto]

Just tell them you love balloons...

jim...

 

[sea_ledford]

Nah, they deliver it to us in a huge semi hauling LOX.

We actually get our O2 cylinders delivered filled from one of the home medical gas suppliers despite having a huge set of LOX tanks out by the generator farm in back. Don't know why, complexly different department.

Exactly! I went to pick up an order of O2 a while ago and the supplier messed up and didn't have it in stock like they said, but they had tons of medical O2. I said "that'll do!" but they wouldn't give it to me without a medical license.

Huh? "You mean a prescription?"

Nope, the person picking it up had to have a medical license.

It's like dealing with ignorant tank monkeys at dive shops, but on an industrial scale. Helium has been even worse because it is exotic. When we called praxair initially:
"Do you have any T or K bottles of Helium?"
"You mean like fer balloons?"
"We need 5 9's pure for diving"
"Nah, we ain't carry nuttin' like dat"
Uh huh... http://www.praxair.com/industries/diving/?tab=related-gases

 

[cool_hardware52]

Glad I filled a few of these full of He at about 6500 psi...

August Industries - Storage Cylinder 6,000 PSI

For O2 think about ABO, aka Aviators Breathing Oxygen. If you are a pilot, of have a friend that is a pilot......

Tobin

 

[Brandon]

Just picked up 2x UHP Helium cylinders at my local gas shop. No problems. It's just expensive.

-B

 

[broncobowsher]

Ah the joys of government regulation. The wholesale price is fixed at $15 for 1,000 cubic feet. The trouble is the cost of recovery is now greater than $15. So to recover Helium and sell it wholesale, you loose money. Thus no gas supplier wants anything to do with making it for wholesale. The supply has dropped, and that has spiked the retail price. The rarity from the lack of supply. Natural gas production may be up, but Helium is a waste product that is most effectively dealt with by dumping it. That saves money over recovering it, purifying it and selling it at a loss.

Want better availability and lower cost Helium? get the wholesale price of Helium raised. That will open up production, increase the supply, saturate the market and that will drive down the prices.