Hello Sophia Hayes and colleagues. Sophia is advertising a conference call below jointly with APS for people with serious Liq He supply problems. If you would like to do this please contact her. Hope this gets to you in time. I’ve been off my email for 20 hours.
Thank you very much.
Robert Honeychuck
George Mason University
Fairfax VA
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On Nov 7, 2018, at 8:30 PM, Hayes, Sophia <hayes_at_wustl.edu<mailto:hayes_at_wustl.edu>> wrote:
Dear Robert,
I just got an inquiry from APS to see if I could line up a few people with significant LHE supply problems to potentially join a conference call—with policy folks in DC.
From your AMMRL inquiry, can you share a few names (with permission) with me of people who are having:
--significant supply problems?
--significant price increases?
--both?
This has a short timeline. Thanks for your help, in advance!
Sophia
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Sophia E. Hayes
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Washington University
1 Brookings Dr., #1134, St. Louis, MO 63130
(314) 935-4624
From: Robert Honeychuck [mailto:rhoneych_at_gmu.edu]
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2018 2:00 PM
To: ammrl_at_ammrl.org<mailto:ammrl_at_ammrl.org>
Subject: AMMRL: Liquid He Summary
Liquid He summary with many deletions.
The most optimistic answer is that the shortage will ease in Nov 2018. The most pessimistic is that 2019 will be a rough year for us.
Several factors contribute to the He shortage.
Here is my original post:
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AMMRLers-
Our liquid He supply problem is becoming more serious. We can't buy any
from 4 suppliers. We have had to resort to paying Bruker to fill and
supply liq He for one of our magnets at a package price. Our other 2
magnets are OK for now.
Is the shortage unique to the east coast of the US? Is it temporary? Any
information would be a help to us all.
Thank you.
Robert Honeychuck
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
and
Manassas, Virginia
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The shortage is not unique to the coast. I have to order 3-4 weeks in advance. My supplier said it's due to the PM at the Exxon refinery. I don't know the location of the liquification facility, but it could have been impacted by the hurricanes.
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Hi Robert,
There is a shortage on the west coast too. So far it has only delayed my deliveries by 3-4 days. I assume there is some kind of ranking system involved in allocations and they know that we can't afford to go without.
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At __________, Praxair won't supply. Megs (related to Air Liquide) has increased prices from $8.15 to $14. Linde quotes $45/L. So something is definitely up. _________, who posted recently, sent this link:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.gasworld.com_global-2Dhelium-2Dsummit-2D2018-2Dcloses_2015512.article&d=DwMGaQ&c=OCIEmEwdEq_aNlsP4fF3gFqSN-E3mlr2t9JcDdfOZag&r=Yse1w20NzhfsUzI2JrkDLpEUtDgsDcpHV6LLR7ZhD44&m=mv-XaTg1ozthtgFOg_O6XDJyDVnxcucaPKGrGOWPrO0&s=4jRY3UVbIGmdBrDUyj-TqKP0GQ0eDIAsMPFVBad36tI&e=<
https://secure-web.cisco.com/1JSdBSPcVmrVsVVe5VWpcBLFoGJyq3s4zOzatxiyQUA_LZoEH0RB1MSCwlLdUmM-DOp5FKR0ER74sEkItAAiaJbA4ny8HiY-O29xz6OVA9FLD9YrgQ_cNdmoxXRzKnqcXW9G3QwD6y4QOhOS80VnbKPO4VBnA7nPW-2sxLGgxufle8bM1ApgsClhCE2Ljb82xXRXAAq4dzZdLh1TyXC2KvEjhvnJBSzyUypFsQRBGMnlwNQaficMy7mAHyhkSROWkCerZQl4-U2LdoJ2NoR-wyL2PGFdkoJrxSZTGxrp00vuI9d3XGZhxcbSKezwDL7Ui1s0nKc-QjISkH1KMHYlhsRGZ0nv5coghKjZhEDAMwhvUTUrCDvfru5Pqd7EYZSYsybSO6jfkYn52f_GTsc1eSLjAB9YEXjrDFeaOHBfPODxJIWHtKjqJ7pzKowuoIBNV/https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.proofpoint.com%2Fv2%2Furl%3Fu%3Dhttps-3A__www.gasworld.com_global-2Dhelium-2Dsummit-2D2018-2Dcloses_2015512.article%26d%3DDwMGaQ%26c%3DOCIEmEwdEq_aNlsP4fF3gFqSN-E3mlr2t9JcDdfOZag%26r%3DYse1w20NzhfsUzI2JrkDLpEUtDgsDcpHV6LLR7ZhD44%26m%3Dmv-XaTg1ozthtgFOg_O6XDJyDVnxcucaPKGrGOWPrO0%26s%3D4jRY3UVbIGmdBrDUyj-TqKP0GQ0eDIAsMPFVBad36tI%26e%3D>which is quite interesting.
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We have a liquid air plant on site that serves the physical sciences departments with their cryogen needs. The person running the plant informed us that there is a major hardware breakdown in one of the main liquifiers in Wyoming, which is the main Helium supply in the US. As a result, there is a big logjam in the Helium supply chain. We were told they are repairing the equipment, but it is not clear to us when this will end. We have been buying Helium gas and pumping it down as the suppliers don't sell liquid Helium anymore. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.
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We have been under "contingency" pricing for several months. I used to be able to order the day before I wanted delivery. Now it takes several days and they charge an extra fee. The people who take the orders have no idea if helium is available at the plant.
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We're on the west coast and had negative experiences with most suppliers. However, we have good experience (so far...time will tell) with WestAir Gases and Equipment, Inc. in terms of pricing and delivery. I am not sure if you can access them on the east coast.
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LHe is in short support in the Midwest also. I was told that one on the plants was shut down for maintenance in August and September. My supplier said we should see it easing up here in November as the plant comes back online and they catch back up to the demand.
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We have similar problem. We have one NMR instrument and have ordered liquid He from a local supplier for 10 years. Recently the supplier removed us from their allocation. We could not find any new supplier. Therefore, we have to consider helium gas recycling. Our Physic Department has one helium recycle system. We are working with them to build a pipeline to hook our NMR with their recycle system.
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We're having similar difficulties in California. Our supplier (Matheson) only gets a shipment of helium every 3-4 weeks, and for the last few months they've delayed all our orders. Just this week they informed us that all of the their contract customers (_______) is on 60% allocation in October and 80% in Nov-Dec. And they don't have any information about what will happen after that. They also can't really tell us what the problem is, but they claim that all the other vendors have similar problems.
One possible cause is that the BLM is reducing the amount they're selling. As far as I understand it, they're still selling off the old federal reserve, but they can only sell it until the remaining amount is 100 billion ft^3 (if I remember correctly). They're expected to reach that amount and stop selling helium entirely in the next 2-3 years. Maybe they're tapering off the amount they sell because it will cause less disruption than stopping suddenly.
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We have a Helium shortage also on the West Coast, I understand it is a global problem. The shortage has something to do with a diplomatic crisis in Qatar, you can check the news on GasWorld. Our university supplier can deliver only 60% of the usual amounts at least until December.
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Iąm not sure how helpful this will be. Iąve heard of quite a few people
having difficulty, not so much being unable to source helium but not
getting as much as they need. Which eventually becomes a real problem.
Iąve also heard reports of poorly maintained dewars, especially smaller
ones, with significant ice in the bottom.
We havenąt had any real problems or been informed of rationing yet, but we
order a pretty consistent amount and the university has a contract. On the
other hand, for the past year or so weąve been paying a łcontingency˛ of
an extra $0.51/liter. I saw yesterday or this morning that Russia will
soon be opening a new helium facility with a capacity >1M liters/year that
will mostly supply Asian markets but may help a bit with supply elsewhere.
When and how much is an open question.
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We received notice this morning that AirGas (Airliquide) would not be able to supply us with any Helium until November.
This is a wold wide shortage due to issues with Exxon’s production facility, limited allocations from BLM.
Weather issues in the gulf of Qatar that have prevented supplied getting out, and that new sources have not yet come on line.
Each supplier is trying to meet the needs of their existing customer and so it is unlikely that you can switch off to another vendor and obtain product.
I am encouraging our institute to invest in a Helium recovery system as soon as possible.
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Received on Thu Nov 08 2018 - 10:59:26 MST