4 ms·
That price is more than a decade out of date. Helium has been about 10x that the past half decade. I used to pay about $3,000 per 100L dewar a few years ago. So
by tedsanders 6y ago
That price is more than a decade out of date. Helium has been about 10x that the past half decade. I used to pay about $3,000 per 100L dewar a few years ago. Sounds like that price was still common in 2020: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.2.20200605a/full/ https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.2.2020060...
Plus, liquid helium is produced as a byproduct of some natural gas extraction. If you needed volumes beyond that production, which seems likely if you wanted to switch the world's data centers to it, you'd be stuck condensing it from the atmosphere, which is far more expensive than collecting it from natural gas. I haven't done the math. I'm curious if someone else has.
- mdturnerphys 6y agoThat's the cost for one-time use of the helium. If you're running a liquefier the cost is much lower, since you're recycling the helium, but it still "costs" ~400W to cool 1W at 4K.
- pushrax 6y agoIn other words, the helium is used to move heat around, and isn’t lost. It’s like the refrigerant in your air conditioner, except that it needs several stages of pre-cooling. Initial cost is high but running it should mostly just incur energy costs if it’s well designed.