Dear NMR Colleagues,
In the last several weeks, I have become aware of a shortage of liquid helium, especially this summer.
I attached a sheet of web links on an assortment of helium stories, but not a single article adequately describes the current situation. Here is what's happened at Illinois in the last few weeks.
1) We learned that no helium is available for our new magnet until September. The magnet arrives June 26 and will just sit.
2) We are performing helium fills the first week of July for our 10 magnets. Helium for 9 magnets is OK, but the helium quantity for the 10th has not been confirmed.
3) After the first week of July, none of our standing orders for helium are confirmed.
4) All vendors I contacted directly by phone are not taking new orders for helium: Praxair, Linde, Airgas, Air Products, Air Liquide, Matheson. They have invoked "force majeure" which is a legal clause excusing them from fulfilling existing contracts due to circumstances beyond their control. Except for Praxair, all are on reduced allocations of LHe.
5) Sarah Cady at Iowa State works at an NMR facility that has recycled helium from NMR magnets since 1967. One of my staff visited her to see exactly how it is done. There are no technical barriers, and we collected some details and advice.
6) A Praxair representative said LHe would be $15 per liter by the end of 2013; I currently pay $8/L. He said only Praxair had a 100% allocation for existing helium orders.
7) Congress fixed helium prices from the national helium preserve (in northern Texas) in 1996. This low price, unchanged since, caused a disincentive among vendors to develop their own helium supplies.
8) Part of the current problem this summer is caused by a maintenance outage by Exxon and the federal Bureau of Land Management, the two entities who actually take the helium out of the USA underground reserve.
9) Agilent as a company is also on helium restrictions this summer, just like everyone else. Details are not clear.
10) A new helium refinery (Air Liquide) is slated to open in summer 2013 in Qatar, and will help supply Europe and Asia, and improve LHe availability in the USA.
11) Chemical and Engineering News was not aware of any particular problem until I phoned them. I told them I was tired of only finding old news stories and getting tidbits of current information from fluff stories about balloons at floral shops. They listened, and we'll see what happens.
That's what I know at the moment, and the status of helium availability changes frequently.
I advise that you immediately check on the status of your future liquid helium orders.
Dean
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Dean L. Olson, Ph.D.
Director, NMR Lab, 146 Roger Adams Lab
School of Chemical Sciences
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
600 S. Mathews, Box 81-5, MC-712
Urbana, IL 61801 USA
Lab: 217-244-0564; Cell: 217-722-9432
dolson_at_illinois.edu<mailto:dolson_at_illinois.edu>
http://scs.illinois.edu/nmr
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Received on Wed Jun 20 2012 - 06:55:58 MST