Helium has unique advantages. The boiling point of helium is only 4.2 Kelvin, which is 4 degrees higher than absolute zero. Liquid helium has the lowest temperature among all elements, high stability, almost no chemical reaction and light weight. So helium began to be used for arc welding insulation, and later used in superconductors and nuclear reactors, as well as human freezing and other fields. Using helium as coolant is the main use of helium today.
At present, there is no chemical method to make helium, which comes from the very slow radioactive decay in rocks and depends on the by-product of natural gas processing. However, not all natural gas reserves contain helium, and it is not always profitable for enterprises to extract helium as a by-product. There are only 14 plants on the earth that refine helium into liquid, 7 of which are located in the United States, and the rest are located in Qatar, Algeria, Russia, Poland and Australia. At present, the cost of extracting helium from air is ridiculously high. The cost of extracting helium from air is about 6.5438+0 million times that of extracting helium from natural gas reserves.
Because helium is non-renewable, many experts estimate that helium will be exhausted within 25 to 30 N. For example, robert richardson, a professor of physics at Cornell University, won the Nobel Prize of 1996n for his research on superfluidity of helium. He warned that the supply of helium is being used at an unprecedented speed and may be exhausted within a generation. But it is also controversial that helium will run out in 20 or 30 n.
There is more helium on the earth than previously estimated.
Recent research shows that the content of helium is higher than previously estimated by scientists, especially in underground water. In this new study, scientists from Oxford University analyzed natural gas samples in North America by mass spectrometry and found that helium was transferred from groundwater to natural gas mines by dissolving in groundwater. This mechanism shows that we may have underestimated the reserves of helium, and there is much more helium waiting to be developed than previously thought.
It can also be seen from the helium-related policies of the United States that helium is not the key resource in the future.
1925n, the United States established a national helium reserve as a strategic helium reserve for military and commercial airships. 1927n helium control act prohibits the export of helium. During World War II, helium once again became an important war material, such as inflating the tires of long-range bombers, so that planes could carry more fuel for longer flights. After the war, the demand for helium increased so fast that the government implemented the helium law amendment in 1960n to store helium for future use. By 197 1n, the helium storage plan was cancelled. After a few days, he began to store helium again. By 1993n, the government has stored about10 billion cubic meters of helium. However, the Helium Privatization Act of 1996n stipulates that the government should sell all the helium stored at a price below the market.
Thanks to the large-scale sales of helium in the United States, helium is indeed cheap and wasteful now, but if the use cost of helium rises in the future, users will be more likely to use helium in a saving and recycling way. Helium will not run out in a short time. It is estimated that the helium content in gas wells around the world at present and in the future can be maintained at least 200 to 300n, which will not be faster than the depletion rate of oil.