INDUSTRY & BUSINESS
Helium use could drop 25% this year Slowdown in space activities, where helium is used to pressurize rocket fuels, is responsible Unless the U.S. space program moves much faster than now seems likely, U.S. consumption of helium this year will be down. It may be down as much as 240 million cu. f t , or 2 5 % . Possibly, the drop will be only 190 million cu. ft., which was the gain helium consumption posted last year, when use reached 948 million cu. ft. After the Apollo spacecraft fire in January and the slowdown in space shots, use of helium to pressurize rocket fuels dropped, probably to half its former level. Only recently has it begun to climb again. This use has accounted for 4 5 % of helium consumption in recent years. Commercial uses of helium (including exports), as separated from government uses, will probably show a gain in 1967 of 15%, about the same as in 1966. The 15% growth will probably continue to prevail for commercial uses. The same rate is probably a reasonable one to apply to government uses, although there are more imponderables, such as the future of the space program and a decision to go ahead with development of an antimissile missile, that could make it more or less than 15%. If the 15% compounded rate becomes the overall actual rate, then helium consumption could reach 2 billion cu. ft. a year in five years, considerably ahead of the Bureau of Mines' prediction of 2 billion cu.-ft. use in 1985. Such fast growth accents helium's major problem—limited supplies. Even though the Bureau of Mines' conservation program bodes well for the medium-term future, helium experts are beginning to ask what will happen later, or even in the mediumterm future, if predictions of consumption growth prove radically low. The possible seriousness of their question is emphasized when they point out that no significant helium sources have been found since 1943. Centennial. When the 100th anniversary of the discovery of helium (by Sir Norman Lockyer) comes up next year, helium experts hope some attention may be focused on supplies for the future. Plans are being made now to celebrate the centennial. A large portion of the helium produced by private companies in 1966, 18 C&EN JULY 3, 1967
about 140 million cu. ft., went to the commercial market. Bureau of Mines supplied the remainder. The whole commercial market in 1966 was about 400 million cu. ft. Exports were between 30 and 35 million cu. ft., probably closer to 35 million. Some helium is still exported to Canada even though that country has had helium production of its own since 1963. Private companies that produce helium for commercial sale are KerrMcGee Oil at Navajo, Ariz.; Kansas Refined Helium at Otis, Kan.; and Gardner Cryogenics-Alamo Chemical (Alamo is a wholly owned subsidiary of Phillips Petroleum) at Greenwood, Kan. More private helium production may be coming in a year or so. Cities Service Oil and Kansas-Nebraska Natural Gas, through subsidiaries, are considering recovering helium by adding facilities to a natural gas processing plant under construction near Scott City, Kan. Air Reduction markets most of the helium produced by Kansas Refined Helium and a large part of that produced by Kerr-McGee. Other marketers, such as Linde division of Union Carbide (which would market the output of the Scott City, Kan., plant if it is built) buy helium from the Bureau of Mines. The bureau sells gaseous helium
only. Private producers and marketers, such as Linde, sell both liquid and gaseous helium. They liquefy helium as desired to meet customer needs and to obtain economies of transportation. (At 1 atm., gaseous helium occupies 745 times as much space as liquid helium.) Nearly four times as much helium was produced and stored as was sold commercially last year under the Bureau of Mines' helium conservation program. This program aims at saving about 41.5 billion cu. ft. of helium over 20 years. It is helium that would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere with the burning of the natural gas in which it is mixed. In addition to helium produced in the Bureau of Mines' plants at Amarillo and Excell, Tex.; Otis, Kan.; Navajo, N.M.; and Key es, Okla., the bureau buys helium for the conservation program from four companies. The plants of these companies are Cities Service Helex at Ulysses, Kan.; National Helium (jointly owned by National Distillers & Chemical and Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line) at Liberal, Kan.; and Phillips Petroleum's plants at Dumas, Tex., and in Hansford County, Tex. Storage. Last year, Bureau of Mines stored over 3.5 billion cu. ft. under the program. At the end of 1966, 12.7 billion cu. ft. of helium were in storage.
CANADIAN PLANT. Filling cylinders with helium from the plant of Canadian Helium, Ltd., at Swift Current, Sask., the only Free World plant outside the U.S.
WELDING. Largest nongovernment use of helium, welding is used here to assemble high-pressure feedwater heater in clean room of Southwestern Engineering, Los Angeles
The helium conservation program has $47.5 million per year available to buy helium. Because producers of helium for the conservation program are running a little below capacity, expenditures in 1966 for helium ran between $44 million and $45 million. The only helium plant in the Free World outside the U.S. is that of Canadian Helium near Swift Current, Sask. It has a capacity of 12 million cu. ft. per year and is being expanded to 36 million cu. ft. (C&EN, March 27, page 106). British American Oil, British Oxygen, and l'Air Liquide own Canadian Helium. Helium is recovered from natural gas used for fuel and from other gases that may have so much nitrogen or carbon dioxide that they are not fuel gases. Generally, the process involves liquefaction of all components (except helium) in the gas and separating the helium by fractionation. The heUum is later liquefied if desired for use or shipping. A large amount of energy is required because the helium is present in concentrations of only 0.3 to 2.0 mole % in most gases. A few
gases have a higher concentration, such as the 8 mole % helium content gas processed by Kerr-McGee. Product helium for sale, called grade A, is 99.995 mole % helium. Other product helium for the conservation program is either 50 or 60 mole % helium. Bureau of Mines has a fixed price for grade A helium of $35 per 1000 cu. ft., measured at atmospheric pressure and 70° F., f.o.b. Amarillo, Tex. This price is designed to cover both production costs and to amortize the conservation program. No volume price discounts are given. Private companies sell helium mostly on a delivered basis; prices vary with volume and location. In most sales larger than a few cylinders, the price is negotiated. A typical price for 100,000 cu. ft. of helium delivered in a tube trailer about 100 miles from a distribution point would be $50 to $55 per 1000 cu. ft. A rule of thumb on transportation costs for gaseous helium is $1.00 per 1000 cu. ft. in a 50,000-cu.ft. trailer for each 50 miles from a distribution point. Liquid helium undoubtedly sells for less than gaseous helium on the average, if for no other reason than the quantities are larger. Only a few commercial users buy liquid helium. Mostly, they are organizations doing research that requires temperatures obtainable with liquid helium. A few companies, such as those which make electronic components, may use enough helium to buy it as a liquid and regasify it. Commercial marketers ship most of
their helium as a liquid to distribution points, where it is stored as liquid and regasified before delivery to customers. Most of the liquid helium is shipped in tank trailers. Even though commercial uses of helium are growing fast, the largest use will continue to be pressurizing liquid-fuel rockets. This use also will show large gains as bigger rockets are fired. A Saturn booster requires about 13 million cu. ft. of helium for a firing plus more during checkouts. Next in size among uses is welding. It is the largest use among private companies. The third largest use of helium is in inert atmospheres. By far the largest such use is that for growing germanium and silicon crystals for making transistors. Helium also is used to blanket processing of fuel elements for nuclear reactors. Small amounts are mixed with oxygen for breathing atmospheres for deep-sea diving and medical uses. Balloons and other lifting jobs probably rank next in volume as a use for helium. About half of the helium used in lifting goes into weather balloons. About 1 million cu. ft. per year goes into toy balloons. The other uses for helium range across the fields of science. Examples of the many uses include chromatography, leak detection, heat transfer medium for nuclear reactors, research on shock tubes, metals, electronic components, and superconductivity. A future use which looms as a big one is in magnetohydrodynamics. Such small, research uses support estimates of the 15% growth in the commercial uses of helium. JULY 3, 1967 C&EN
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