Why is helium so expensive?

Why helium is so expensive - information

The helium is a so-called. Noble gas, a chemical element with atomic number 2, hydrogen has atomic number 1 and has a proton, i.e. a positively charged nucleus around which an electron swims very quickly.

• Helium is a non-toxic and colorless gas that you may find already know because when you inhale the gas through a balloon filled with it, you have a very bright "Mickey Mouse" voice. Due to the very light gas, which is lighter than air, the effect is only short-lived.
• The noble gas does not become liquid even at maximum cold of -273 degrees Celsius, the sun constantly fuses from hydrogen to helium, while the Gas is naturally limited on earth as a resource, so the scarcity factor is already one of the reasons why helium is so expensive is.
• The gas is only available in atomic form, especially that
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  ⁴He as a stable isotope and that ³He, which is very rare, are the sources for the gas.
• Helium is only formed when radioactive particles such as radium or uranium decay. The particles are referred to as alpha particles due to the corresponding alpha decay of the radioactive material. Helium is created as a result of the fact that this other atom tears away two negatively charged particles - the electrons. This helium naturally collects as natural gas, the so-called. Fractional distillation is the process by which the noble gas is filtered or removed from the natural gas. is won. This is a very expensive and complex process, which means that helium is expensive. Because natural gas itself is a scarce and increasingly expensive raw material.


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• Helium is used in everyday life in the so-called. Low temperature technology. This takes mainly forms in deep-sea breathing apparatus or also as a coolant. With certain methods, helium can also be used to determine the age of stones; the noble gas also acts as a filler for airships due to its lack of flammability. The inert gas is also used for certain welding work such as gas-shielded metal arc welding. As a result, the gas plays an important role in purging and cleaning the fuel tanks of spaceships. Here, however, the situation is that another noble gas - argon - is now also replacing helium, this in combination with the gases hydrogen and nitrogen.
• In order to avoid that helium becomes more expensive as a scarce commodity, it now goes through a recycling mechanism, although the existing supplies are only used up stretched and no new resources gained, this process is often more expensive than using the existing resources, which means that no way has been found to make helium less expensive do.

Artificial production is also expensive

Due to the scarcity of resources regarding of the natural raw material helium, which is obtained from the already scarce natural gas, provides the Artificial production of the noble gas represents an alternative to the world demand for the individual branches cover up. Unfortunately, this method is also expensive because the effort is associated with high energy costs and effort.

• The artificial production of the noble gas takes place through a nuclear reaction, in which, for example, lithium is mixed with so-called. Neutrons are permanently bombarded. This is the result of the ⁴Hey, this process also produces "super-heavy hydrogen" - tritium - which in turn decays and that ³Hey again.
• While this method is sometimes called effective, it is not efficient in terms of cost. In terms of costs, the alternative is to dismantle nuclear weapons and use the tritium that can be used as a source of helium. Since there are fewer and fewer nuclear weapons on the basis of disarmament in order to extract the noble gas, this alternative is only a temporary "source".
• In theory there is the possibility of using nuclear fusion reactors ⁴To generate He, however, the costs are too high here too and could not cover the global demand for the noble gas.

Accordingly, it is the best alternative, through the process of rethinking the energies, the knowledge to use and implement technologically, instead of permanently resorting to limited resources, which will soon be available anyway go out. Therefore, you should also be careful with helium balloons and the like, as well as all other natural resources that are scarce.