we're consuming helium in ever-increasing doses here, and we're
about to build another building dedicated to housing more big magnets.
it's time for us to look into helium recovery to see if it is
a viable and economical method of keeping our helium costs down.
i do not recall a recent discussion here about helium recovery, and i
am not able to find such discussion in the archives.
so, whoever has experience with helium recycling and would like to
enlighten me on its feasibility/practicality, please respond to
the following questions or tell us about your experiences.
1) who are some companies/individuals in the US who will take your used
helium and pay you money for it or discount you for liquid helium?
2) if a large balloon is required to recover the helium, how big
does it need to be, and what is a practical size?
does this balloon need to have a trap to keep impurities other
than helium away? i.e., do they only want pure helium?
3) what is the minimum amount of helium that is practical for recovery,
costwise? (i guess the more magnets you have, the more you're
likely to save).
I will post a summary of all responses.
Thanks much in advance,
John Chung
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Manager, NMR Laboratories (619)784-7453 (Office)
Dept. of Molecular Biology, MB2 784-7282 (Lab)
The Scripps Research Institute 784-9822 (Fax)
10666 N. Torrey Pines Rd. email: chung@scripps.edu
La Jolla, CA 92037 http://www.scripps.edu/~chung
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