Who needs a helium-recovery system?

What is helium used for?

Superconducting magnets: We can use helium to cool these magnets. When cooled with liquid helium, certain types of electromagnets allow electricity to flow through them with no resistance. In hospitals, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners use superconducting magnets. University and industry research laboratories use helium as they develop new drugs. Today, we use most of our helium in these types of cryogenic applications. For example, Pfizer’s Pharmaceutical Sciences division (PharmSci) uses NMRs (nuclear magnetic resonance) to characterize and study potential new active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs.

Space, science, and welding: The space industry is a major consumer, using helium to expel liquid rocket fuel for combustion. And because it conducts heat well, it offers good penetration and faster speed for welders. Because it’s nonreactive, it makes a good shielding gas, protecting the arc from oxygen and contaminants. It's used in science to cool particle accelerators and quantum computers. The Large Hadron Collider uses massive quantities of helium. And NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope uses a helium cryogenic cooler to ensure its infrared sensors work.

Semiconductors: Extreme vacuum conditions are needed to build semiconductors. Even tiny leaks can ruin the product. Helium is preferred for detection because it is small enough to reliably find leaks, is inert, and nontoxic. It is also still relatively cheap when compared to other noble gases. And with only very small quantities in the atmosphere, ambient helium won’t distort measurements.

Where does Earth’s helium come from?

Helium is a naturally occurring byproduct of radioactive material in the earth. Found underground, it’s mined in just a few places. It’s usually harvested as a byproduct from oil and natural gas production. It’s a nonrenewable resource on Earth. The radioactive decay of uranium that produces it takes an awful long time.

The supply is limited. So, back to our party balloons. Honestly, not much helium is used in them—just 5-7 percent, according to the balloon industry. But that’s still helium that’s gone once it’s used.

Helium prices are going up

Up until recently, helium was fairly cheap and considered abundant. But the US is producing less even as demand rises—and only a few countries harvest it. So, the price of helium is extra sensitive. It can be impacted by regional conflict, trade wars, and accidents at helium plants.

The price surged in 2022 and 2023. With the cost of new helium rising, customers are looking for alternative ways to reduce costs.

Reducing helium costs

Researchers are looking for alternative processes and materials. They want to reduce or eliminate helium in superconducting, cooling, leak-testing, and in MRIs. For cryogens, however, helium will remain in use., So users need ways to reduce their use.

Closed-loop systems are one method larger consumers can use to reduce their helium budget. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Linac Coherent Light Source-II at Stanford University in California circulates four tons of helium with low losses. Hospitals, labs, and drug manufacturers that use virgin helium could benefit from finding ways to recapture it. Retrofitting existing equipment with a helium-recovery system can reduce the helium that escapes from their facility. This can bring down their annual bills and likely pay for itself in a decade or less.

How does a helium-recovery system work?

We recently finished the design for a facility modification to support a new helium-recovery system for a pharmaceutical maker. The company uses dozens of NMRs in its labs. The technology in the helium-recovery system is not new. The bespoke system, aggregated to a complete system by Bruker BioSpin, combines a number of off-the-shelf products from several manufacturers. Our team’s job was to integrate the system design into the available space.

The new recapture system connects to a series of NMRs distributed across eight labs on four floors. The helium-recovery system collects the helium venting off the NMR magnets in a large neoprene balloon. It then compresses, purifies, and liquifies the helium for reuse in the magnets.

There are, of course, challenges to designing these systems. Space and power are two of them.

Space: The facility must hold a helium-recovery system that can include a large storage balloon, a compressor, a liquefier, a purifier, and storage tanks. Liquid helium’s boiling point in the magnet is affected by pressure changes, and this can influence research results. To mitigate those effects, the recovery system uses a large low-pressure reservoir to capture the helium.

A deflated balloon gradually fills with helium at low pressure. Next, the system compresses the helium and collects it in high-pressure storage tanks. This reduces the volume. Once the tanks collect enough compressed helium, the system passes it to a purifier and liquefier. Ultimately, it captures the liquid helium in a vacuum-insulated dewar flask, which can be used to refill the magnet’s supply.

Power: The recapture process needs a lot of energy. The compressors required to purify and liquefy the helium use a great amount of electricity. So, a helium-recovery system will need a lot of power.

When considering the cost of system installation, we need to account for the cost of adding or upgrading electrical services required for the new loads.

Who are the best candidates for helium recapture?

Recapture systems make sense for pharmaceutical labs using NMRs, hospitals using MRIs, and research facilities. These facilities use large amounts of helium in a fixed, well-insulated location that has a low boil-off rate. These fixed location facilities lend themselves to the use of a helium-recovery system.

Anticipated payback time for helium recovery systems

With the cost of helium rising, the payback time for investment in a helium-recovery system is shrinking. The most significant users of helium would be wise to investigate setting up a recovery system to control long-term costs.

The return on investment is a good argument for helium-recovery systems. Sustainability is another. Helium is a precious resource that plays a vital role in medicine, advanced science, and research. The Earth has a limited supply. We should look at implementing helium-recovery systems wherever the scale of helium usage will justify the investment.