We’re Running Out of Helium, and Two Geologists Might Have a Fix

Grad student Karim Mtili (right) collects gas samples in Itumbula, Tanzania. PHOTOGRAPHER: ADRIANE OHANESIAN FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

Helium is a chemical element. It belongs to group 18 of the periodic table of the elements since having the complete energy level presents the properties of a noble gas. That is, it is inert (does not react) and, like these, it is a colorless and odorless monoatomic gas that has the lowest boiling point of all chemical elements and can only be liquefied under very large pressures and cannot be frozen.

It should be noted that during 1903 large reserves of helium were found in natural gas fields in the United States, which is the country with the highest production of helium in the world. Helium is the second lightest and second most abundant element in the observable universe, constituting 24% of the mass of the elements present in our galaxy. Most of the helium in the universe is present in the form of the isotope helium-4 (4He), which is believed to have formed about 15 minutes after the Big Bang.

The possible solution proposed by two geologists

Certainly, helium is industrially used in cryogenics, in the cooling of superconducting magnets. Among these uses of helium, the most important application is in MRI scanners.

It is no secret to anyone that we are running out of helium, however, two Australian geologists may have the solution to this situation.

Josh Bluett and his friend Thomas Abraham-James are Australian geologists and former housemates in Brisbane who had been looking for precious metals and fossil fuels for mining and energy companies. Bluett and Abraham-James found geophysical studies of the area that Amoco Corp., now part of BP Plc, had done in the 1980s while searching for oil. They certainly didn’t find any oil, but, detected a lot of sedimentary traps where helium could accumulate. “Seismic techniques can generate subsoil images, so you can look and say you have so much gas”.

Helium One delivered all this data to the Netherland resource certifier, Sewell & Associates Inc., in Houston. In 2016, the NSAI said there could be up to 98 billion cubic feet of helium under the hot rock of Mtili. That would be enough to meet global demand for 16 years. “To my knowledge, it was the largest primary helium reserve ever announced”, says Bluett. Goodbye, shortage of helium, at least in theory.

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Source: Paul Tullis | Bloomberg