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- "This was one of the big issues at the start of the Ukraine invasion because they're one of the world's preeminent suppliers." That one was actually neon. It
by perihelions 3y ago
- "This was one of the big issues at the start of the Ukraine invasion because they're one of the world's preeminent suppliers."
That one was actually neon. It has nothing to do with natural gas; it's a byproduct of the cryogenic distillation of air, which steelmakers do on an industrial scale to get pure oxygen. As you point out, here's not much helium in the Earth's atmosphere; rather, since it (helium-4) is the product of alpha decay of geologic thorium and uranium, it accumulates in the same kind of places as natural gas. Hence: Texas.
There was a large HN thread on the neon thing here,
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30457490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30457490 (422 comments)
- arcticbull 3y agoHelium too [1] although definitely also neon. [1] https://cen.acs.org/business/specialty-chemicals/War-Ukraine-makes-helium-shortage-more-dire/100/i10 https://cen.acs.org/business/specialty-chemicals/War-Ukraine...
- perihelions 3y agoYour article's talking about helium from Algeria, though? - "The helium shutdown in Arzew [Algeria] is a result of high natural gas demand in Europe, due in large part to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Helium is found alongside natural gas in conventional wells. Algeria normally compresses natural gas into liquid form at Arzew for global transport by ship. During that process, it’s economical to extract helium because it liquefies at much higher pressures and lower temperatures than natural gas, explains industrial gas consultant Jon Raquet." - "But now, much of Algeria’s natural gas is being sent to Spain via pipeline, making separation impractical."
- arcticbull 3y agoMy understanding is that Ukraine and Russia both produce a lot of natural gas and hence helium, and that the supply to the west from Russia was cut off due to sanctions and further threatened in Ukraine due to conflict itself. The shifting mentioned in the article is further knock-on effects of the war and its impact on energy markets - and how those further constrain the global supply chain for He. This isn't my area of expertise though so please do let me know if I've misunderstood.
- perihelions 3y ago- "produce a lot of natural gas and hence helium" Right about gas, but it doesn't follow that they've invested in infrastructure to cryogenically separate helium from gas fields, the way they did with neon (at steel plants). (That was the colorful thing about the neon crisis: every country in the world has enormous neon resources; the list of countries that can produce industrial amounts on <6 months notice is short). I looked it up: Ukraine doesn't export any helium (as of 2019 public data), and it has helium production capacity but it's marginal. Algeria is world #3, behind the USA and Qatar. https://www.deutsche-rohstoffagentur.de/DE/Gemeinsames/Produkte/Downloads/DERA_Rohstoffinformationen/rohstoffinformationen-39_en.pdf https://www.deutsche-rohstoffagentur.de/DE/Gemeinsames/Produ... (pages 69 and 71)
- arcticbull 3y agoAh, noted. Thanks.
- thehappypm 3y agoAlso, helium tends to escape the atmosphere into space! Air is just a ton of colliding molecules, and something like helium has an atomic mass of ~4, compared to say nitrogen, which has an atomic mass of ~14, and it is in the N2 form, so it has a mass of ~18. So, an N2 molecule is way more massive than a helium atom. As a result, helium at the same temperature as nitrogen has a much higher average velocity and can escape the earth's gravity at a high rate.
- pdonis 3y ago> it is in the N2 form, so it has a mass of ~18 I think you mean ~28 (2 times ~14).
- thehappypm 3y agoYup, typo!