AMMRL: Helium question...from the devil's advocate

From: Richard Shoemaker <richard.shoemaker_at_Colorado.EDU>
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:41:54 -0600

Hello Rajan (and others):

I purchase my liquid helium from Air Gas, who is a third-party distributor (mostly for Air Products' helium) in my. I believe that the vendors saw this looming problem as an excuse to start limiting availability in advance (under the guise of not accepting orders that they might not be able to fill). Ultimately, creating a shortage will likely accelerate the process of driving up prices... which is going to happen no matter what, so we'd better buckle our seatbelts.

As the deadline loomed closer, I received daily updates from my Air Gas representatives about new notices from Air Products limiting orders. The reason given was specifically that they (Air Products) didn't want to accept orders that they might not be able to fill if the helium supply was actually cut off. In my letters to Senators, I pointed out to them that we were already experiences anticipatory shortages that were affecting our ability to maintain our research facilities (trying to get them to realize that waiting until the 11th hour... which is their custom ... is causing us real headaches).

Another thing to realize is that (at least for Linde customers, maybe others) a real shutdown of the Exon-Mobile fields in Wyoming is happening regardless of what the government does. These Natural Gas/Helium fields (NW Colorado up through Wyoming) are owned by Exon-Mobile, and aren't under the Federal B.L.M. umbrella. I've been told that Exon-Mobile's helium goes exclusively to Linde, but haven't tried to confirm that fact. They are shutting down their helium operation for at least a month for maintenance/repairs... exactly at the same time as this other looming problem with the Texas/Kansas BLM reserves. Coincidence? ... you can decide.

Finally, in the area of helium recovery, I'm working with an engineering company that designed the helium recovery/re-compression system for our LASP institute (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics), which uses a LOT of helium. Their system re-compresses into 6-packs of cylinders (2,200 PSI each), which then go to our liquefaction facility in the Physics Department (across town from LASP). I've quantified the boiloff from my magnets, and it would take most of a month to fill a 300 CuFt gas bag from any one of my sites... meaning that their system is way overkill for me. We are trying to come up with a scaled down system that would be appropriate to collect boiloff from 2-3 mid-field magnets, re-compress into larger, portable containers, which could then go across campus (or across town) to our liquefaction facility for purification, and re-liquefaction. It's going to cost a lot of money, but eventually this will simply be necessary. If we get something that works, I'll share with the group.

Best regards,

-Rich Shoemaker

---
Richard K. Shoemaker, Ph.D.,
Research Professor & Director, NMR Spectroscopy Facility
University of Colorado at Boulder
Phone:  (303) 492-7062  Fax: (303) 492-5894
E-Mail: Richard.Shoemaker_at_Colorado.edu<mailto:Richard.Shoemaker_at_Colorado.edu>
Web: http://chemnmr.colorado.edu/rshoe
From: Rajan Paranji [mailto:paranji_at_chem.washington.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 10:52 AM
To: Olson, Dean
Cc: ammrl_at_ammrl.org
Subject: AMMRL: Helium question...from the devil's advocate
Dear All
   With the dust hopefully settling down the Helium crisis, I am tempted to go a bit quantitative. Kindly bear with me.
   With all the heartburn we are all experiencing with the Helium situation, I could not help but wonder about the following.   The imminent shut down of federal Helium reserve, if the bill didn't sail through to the office of the POTUS,  is only set to start on October 7th.  So, why this 'apparent shortage' for the past couple of months, since the quantum of Helium gas flowing should have been the steady state value until the dreaded shut down in Texas, is it not ?  Most probably I have missed something big in the news but I am not able to add the numbers up when the retailers seem to be quoting a 40 to 50% cut in their Helium 'quota' from the major suppliers.  What accounts for that 50% loss  ?  Is there some kind of 'squirrelling away' going on ?
   Thank you for your valuable time.
Best Regards
Rajan
On 09/26/2013 01:49 PM, Olson, Dean wrote:
All -
Great news.  The Senate concurred in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R.527<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:H.R.527:>, Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act.  The bill sailed through on unanimous consent.
As a result in concurring in the House Amendment, the bill will be sent to the President for signature.
Also, here are two good links:
http://naturalresources.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=351216
http://naturalresources.house.gov/legislation/helium/
Dean
*******************************
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
*******************************
--
____________________________________
Rajan K Paranji, Ph.D.
NMR Facility Manager
Department of Chemistry
Room 65, Bagley Hall
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
*ph: 206 685 2581
fax: 206 685 8665
email: paranji_at_chem.washington.edu<mailto:paranji_at_chem.washington.edu>
____________________________________

Received on Wed Oct 02 2013 - 09:41:58 MST