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Question about Helium

Big B

Diamond
Joined
Jun 26, 2009
Location
Michigan, USA
I'm watching the news and saw some footage from the parade preparations in NYC tomorrow, wind permitting and I got to thinking about all the helium in them.I have read that helium is a finite resource and once it's gone it's gone. So my question is to they recycle it after the parade is over as in pump it back into high pressure tanks?
 
Linde supplies the He and they claim that for the past two years they've captured "some" of it when they deflate the balloons. It would be very easy for them to capture "a lot" of it but they've left amount vague in their press release.
 
Kind of seems to me like someone could use an oilless air compressor so as not to contaminate the helium and just pump it into regular air storage tanks. It would still have plenty of pressure for things like blowing up balloons and talking like Donald Duck. This doesn't seem like something that would require the services of a professional gas company to do.
 
Helium is a byproduct of natural gas mining. And we aren't fractionally distilling ALL of the helium in the consumed natural gas. Helium as collected from atmospheric air is so rare that it is not at all cost effective to collect.

There was an overage that was stored by the federal government as a strategic stockpile, back when the government was invested in growing infrastructure (largely during the cold war). Then free market was given reign over it and we've slowly been "running out" since. Expected to be out of the stockpile in 2021. Which then means that they'll charge 5x as much for the same helium once the stockpile is used up and they have to go back to only selling what they produce.
 
Helium is a byproduct of natural gas mining. And we aren't fractionally distilling ALL of the helium in the consumed natural gas. Helium as collected from atmospheric air is so rare that it is not at all cost effective to collect.

There was an overage that was stored by the federal government as a strategic stockpile, back when the government was invested in growing infrastructure (largely during the cold war). Then free market was given reign over it and we've slowly been "running out" since. Expected to be out of the stockpile in 2021. Which then means that they'll charge 5x as much for the same helium once the stockpile is used up and they have to go back to only selling what they produce.

Evidently there's a new program scheduled to start around 2021...
 
Can't see what's wrong using hydrogen for weather balloons etc-even kiddies balloons(providing they don't smoke)! And it's even lighter than helium.
 
Well it was good enough for the Hindenburg :crazy::nutter::eek:


There'll be a hot, hot time in Lakehurst, New Jersey,
When the Hindenburg lands today.
Well, the band will start to play,
And the people will shout "hooray"!
When the Hindenberg lands today... yay! yay!
All the way from Germany to be here with us,
We know your motto is "to Jersey or Bust"!
There'll be a hot, hot time in Lakehurst, New Jersey,
When the Hindenburg lands today!
 








 
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