The History of Helium
Historical Helium
Helium is one of the most abundant natural elements in our universe, the second most common to be exact. Helium is named after the Greek God Helios, the Sun deity of the Greek civilization. French astronomer Jules Janssen and English astronomer Norman Lockyer first discovered helium back in 1868 during the same solar eclipse. It was Lockyer who first named the newly discovered element and named it after the Grecian God as his discovery originated from the solar eclipse. Terrestrial helium was not discovered for another ten years, as it is so rare on Earth. Since that time Helium has been an essential part of scientific and medical discovery, with this incredibly versatile element most commonly used as a cryogenic agent. Helium provides many benefits for mankind, aside from the hilarious voice changing qualities and as a source of great joy for children’s colourful party balloons. For more on Helium Click Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeliumCryogenics, Air-Conditioning and Liquid Crystal Displays
Much of the helium used in modern society is used by the medical industry as a super coolant for MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines. In fact imaging machines utilize almost one quarter of all commercially produced Helium as coolant.One of the main reasons that Helium is used in industrial and medical applications is the extreme cold that helium is able to impart to components. Super-conducting magnets that make viewing the atomic structure of matter possible must be very powerful and precise to create coherent images. To ensure that the magnetic field is stable they must be kept at as low a temperature as possible. Helium has a boiling point of about 4.15° Kelvin, which is -269° Celsius, or -452.2° Fahrenheit for Americans.
The only possible method of super-cooling these high tech marvels is to use liquid Helium as it is the coldest element in the known universe. Most MRI machines require around 1,700 litres of liquid helium to function and there are an estimated 50,000 MRI machines in the world today.But cryogenically freezing sophisticated scanning equipment is not the only use for helium in the modern world. Helium is used to pressurise liquid fuel rockets, it is used as an inert atmosphere to grow silicon crystals that comprise fibre-optics and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens. Helium is commonly used as a component of tracer gas designed to spot leaks in critical systems for the automotive, aeronautical and air-conditioning industries. Approximately 12% of all helium utilized today is for leak checking pressurised systems.
There is a growing business in reclamation of helium from pressure testing the radiator in your car and checking your home Air-conditioning system, and as the price of Helium steadily rises these businesses will become more profitable.
How Much Helium Is On Earth?
As I mentioned, Helium is the second most common element in our universe so why has there been a lot of news about a helium shortage?There are a few reasons for this; although Helium is abundant in the universe, most helium exists in stars and gas giant planets that have a strong enough gravitational pull or gravity well, to keep them within the confines of their orbit. However on Earth helium has insufficient mass to be kept in our atmosphere by Earths gravity well. Helium is one of the few elements that have a natural escape velocity once released into the atmosphere. When we say that helium is lighter than air, it is correct up to a point, but it may be more correct to say that helium is lighter than our gravity field.
Also Earth is quite warm and helium will boil into a gas in all but the most frigid conditions thus there is not a lot of helium on earth, it comprises much less than one per cent of the elemental composition of our planet. The estimated volume of Helium in the atmosphere only adds up to a grand total of 0.00052%. The Sun and pretty much the rest of the universe aggregate around 23% Helium and 74% hydrogen, whilst all the other elements squeeze into the remaining 3% of all known matter.
Helium and Natural Gas
All of the helium on Earth (99%) is a product of radioactive materials, such as uranium or thorium undergoing alpha decay, where nuclei of helium are released and gather electrons from around them. Generally the helium follows its natural inclination and will rise through the earth to escape into the atmosphere. However geological capstones commonly formed by anticlines that normally trap natural gases such methane, ethane and propane, will also retain much lighter gases such as Helium. The largest natural deposit of helium in the world is found at the Hugoton Gas Field in The United States and straddles three states of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. The US has been stockpiling helium for over fifty years now and is in the process of a huge sell off of this reserve to recover the costs incurred in setting up the extraction and storage facility at Amarillo in Texas. Yet as demand continues to out strip production the US has amended this decision with the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 to avert the pending disaster of shutting down the worlds largest Helium supply.Future of Helium Use
To put all of this information in perspective; we discovered terrestrial helium about 150 years ago and in that time we have managed to use up pretty much all there is on the planet. There are various estimates as to how long we can continue to use helium based on the reserves that we currently have available to us and the expected increase in utilization and those estimates range from 15 to 30 years of use at the most. But those estimates only account for the current technological uses of Helium, not only as a cooling agent for advanced imaging machines but also for the myriad of other scientific and industrial applications we use helium for. These estimates do not take into account the other theorised use of Helium in nuclear fusion reactors.Nuclear Fusion and Helium Reactions
Helium may be the answer to all of humanities power needs if nuclear fusion can be made possible. The very basics of nuclear fusion and the final and most replicable part of the reaction that occurs in the heart of the Sun is as follows; two Helium-3 (3He) molecules smash together at enormous speed and under tremendous pressure, under this pressure they fuse to form Helium-4 (4He). Two hydrogen particles are released from this collision along with an enormous amount of energy.If this reaction can be replicated and controlled and harnessed then we may have the next stage in power production, and perhaps more importantly the next step in our journey into space.
For us to continue using helium to cool our medical machines and even use it as fuel for space exploration and as a source of clean energy new sources of helium must be found and utilized.For more on how the Sun works and the string of reactions that generate heat, light and energy click Here
Run Rabbit Run
On December 15th 2013 the first Chinese lunar lander – Chang’e-3 (Named after a Chinese goddess who flew to the moon) made soft landing in the Bay of Rainbows crater (Latin: Sinus Iridum) on the moon. This is the first soft landing made on the moon since the Russians landed there in 1976. Shortly after the making successful moon fall Chang’e-3 released Yutu or the Jade Rabbit (Chang-e’s faithful pet), China’s first robotic lunar rover. One of the many reasons Yutu is scouting the lunar landscape is to uncover potential deposits of frozen 3He gas, amongst other minable minerals.Ouyang Ziyuan, Cosmo-chemist and chief scientific advisor for the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) was quoted in an approved press release that: “Everyone knows fossil fuels such as gas and coal will be used up one day, but there are at least one million metric tons of helium-3 on the moon,”
Unfortunately at the time of writing this article Yutu has run into difficulties with retracting its very sensitive instrumentation before the lunar night and CLEP has lost contact with the Jade Rabbit. Very little information has been released about this, but it does illustrate the difficulties and dangers inherent in space exploration.
China Lunar Exploration Project
Should humanity be able to develop a safe and sustainable fusion energy plant and be able with stand the rigors of space travel and lunar mining to keep the fusion reactors providing clean energy for all then we may have the opportunity to do away with dirty and dangerous energy generation systems and have a launch pad for space exploration.I for one am glad the Chinese have the vision and drive to take up the mantle of space exploration, a promise boldly made and sadly failed by The United States.
Article about Helium was bought to you by the Home Air Conditioning Advisory Centre Brisbane for AC Brisbane North
Written by Jamie Grant for http://www.airconditioningadvisorycentre.com.au/
