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The Real Helium Crisis May Not Be What We Are Constantly Told
1 May 2024
As an old chromatography guy, I am certainly no helium expert; I always understood the ‘Helium Crisis’ from only a GC perspective. I found useful information published in our favourite chromatography magazines and many articles from analytical column, GC and gas generator manufacturers discussing technical aspects of substitution with hydrogen. I knew that Helium was a non-renewable resource, I had read many times that global Helium would be depleted in two or three hundred years, I knew that Helium was extracted as a waste product from natural gas, I knew that there had been four extended periods of problematic supply since 2006, and I knew that the price had increased by c.300% since 2010. I had developed a vague assumption that the crisis, supply disruption and increasing price were somehow related to production problems related to the declining level of global reserves and resources. In this article, reserves are amounts already proven to exist and quantified by existing producers, while resource figures include estimates of yet undiscovered geological deposits. I have found that many sources do not define or even confuse these accepted definitions.
I decided to look at the global production, reserve and resource figures for myself. I found that this information for the world helium-producing countries was published in the yearly Mineral Commodity Summaries reports published each January by the U.S. Geological Survey, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. I looked at the published reports covering the years 2010 to 2023. These reports show that the reported global reserves have remained fairly constant, irrespective of yearly production. The two largest producers, the U.S.A. and Qatar, were responsible for 46 and 39%, respectively, of global production during 2023. Total global production was 170 million m3 during this period. From 2014 until 2020, the U.S.A. reported the same national reserves figure of 3,900 million m3 yearly. The figure reported for 2021, after a new national survey, was increased to 8,500 million m3, with the same figure reported for 2022 and 2023. Is this a crisis? Qatar’s reserves are reported simply as large because they have not yet been fully proven. The total global production figures reported from 2010 to 2023 show a low of 156 million m3 for 2015 and a high of 172 million m3 for 2011, with no discernable trend, while the price consistently increased from $5.4 to $14.0 per m3 over the same period. Interestingly, 2022, with a production of 158 million m3 and a price of $11.0, was followed in 2023 by a production of 170 million m3 and a price of $14.0 per m3. I could not find a clear relationship between reserves, yearly production, and price in the raw data.
I came across the website of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, a world-renowned expert in the helium industry, almost by accident. I read in Kornbluth publications that problematic supply disruptions and price increases are unrelated to global reserves or resources. Short-term shortages have been caused by industrial accidents, fires destroying extraction plants, planned and unplanned maintenance, geopolitical events, and poor management of the privatisation of the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve. Reserve figures reported are actually ever-increasing, and new national geological resources are being reported. Another problem is that when industrial problems affect supply, there is only limited buffer supply storage. Only the U.S.A. has a significant storage buffer, which can be used during times of reduced production. Until sold in January 2024, Bush Dome was part of the Federal Helium Reserve, where partially refined helium (70%) was injected into an impermeable rock formation for long-term storage. Storage in this facility, with an estimated total capacity of 1.3 billion m3, has been run down as part of the U.S. government program to divest itself of helium-related assets. In 2000, the dome held 864 million m3, enough to supply global demand for about 5 years as 100% purity, but by 2024, only 23 million m3 was still held there. Elsewhere, with no significant buffer storage, production problems cause almost immediate shortages, which are major sources of supply disruption.
World resources estimated for only current producers are ample for 287 years. I would like to suggest that the helium crisis has nothing to do with the level of reserves or resources. I have no supporting references to cite; however, the real crisis, as I personally see it, is that helium can currently be viewed as a waste product from the natural gas industry, and it occurs mainly in small concentrations in natural gas fields. In the U.S., helium concentration is between 0.5 and 2%, and only 0.05% is found in Qatar. The bottom line is that because of global warming, we must reduce the use of the natural gas from which helium is extracted, but if we stop producing gas, we have no helium production. Imagine the effect on the price of helium and the increased engineering challenge if profit is not made from selling the gas after helium extraction because the gas has to be returned back into geological formations.
We must extract all possible helium from existing reserves. Qatar extracts helium from only 30% of its natural gas production. Producers must develop long-term storage facilities such as the U.S. ‘Dome’. We must develop new technologies and alternatives to reduce helium usage. For example, in 2023, MRI scanners were responsible for 16% of total U.S. helium consumption. New designs of MRI scanners using significantly less helium are already in production, and other new designs are in development that will operate at higher temperatures, allowing the use of liquid nitrogen rather than helium. Many applications could substitute hydrogen if safety issues can be successfully addressed. Do we really need helium-filled party balloons, which account for between 5 and 7% of global demand? In Tanzania, newly identified and significant resources have been found to contain 2.5 to 10.2% helium, but most importantly, not in natural gas. This helium is contained in nitrogen along with a little argon and oxygen. Efforts must be made to find and exploit resources such as these.
As part of our drive on sustainability, Butterworth Laboratories’ chromatography facility is now fully equipped to use hydrogen as a GC carrier gas whenever prudent, and our projects department is eager to develop and validate new methods that would benefit from its use. Over the last few years, we have invested in six Shimadzu Nexis GC2030 instruments, four with integrated HS20NX Headspace Samplers. These instruments are designed for the use of either hydrogen or helium, which is selected electronically with no recalibration required. This now gives a total of nine GC systems, six of which have headspace capability, including GCMS.
As I write this article in May 2024, we have already installed and tested all of the required distribution pipework, and Peak Scientific will commission our first hydrogen generator this month, along with nitrogen and air generators.
Frank Judge Consultant Chemist – Chromatography