3 ms·

I'd guess you'd still have problem separating helium from hydrogen?

• amluto 8y ago
  That seems relatively straightforward to solve chemically. Hydrogen can be adsorbed by many different materials. Or you could add just the right amount of oxygen to burn the hydrogen and then condense the water out.
  • zrm 8y ago
    Couldn't this also be done for the other reactive components (especially nitrogen and oxygen) before cooling the gas? Removing ~99% of the mass ahead of time would require that much less energy for cooling.
    • londons_explore 8y ago
      Liquid oxygen and nitrogen both have some commercial value. The tricky but is the liquidation process only liquifies some small fraction of the gas. The rest remains as a gas, so you now have "helium enriched" air, but it is still a very small percentage helium.