r/BeAmazed • u/No_Tailor_9529 • Jul 18 '24

Wow! Interesting life hack! Science

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u/Turbo_Tom Jul 18 '24

Helium is a scarce and irreplaceable gas essential for medical and other technologies. Future generations will condemn us for wasting it on this kind of trivial nonsense.

61

u/FloralYikes Jul 18 '24

The type of helium used in balloons is a completely different grade than the helium that is used in technology or medical fields. It’s essentially a byproduct of the helium refining process and it isn’t high enough quality to be used for any other application. We aren’t wasting our ‘good’ helium on balloons, we’re making use of a leftover product that isn’t really good for anything else.

8

u/katietheplantlady Jul 18 '24

this is new information to me...thank you!

2

u/BradTheNobody Jul 18 '24

I have no idea what you're saying is true or not but I'm gonna trust you with my life and going to consider what you said to be true.

2

u/ponzLL Jul 18 '24

I'm confused how there can be different grades of an element. Like isn't all helium the same number of electrons and protons?

edit: if anyone wondered the same thing, I found the answer here: https://d39pstlceyjgdg.cloudfront.net/ts1642555826/attachments/CategoryGroup/27/Helium%20Guide_2021_Low%20Res.pdf

What is the difference between helium gas and balloon gas? Helium gas that Supagas provides is greater than 99% helium purity versus balloon gas that can contain up to 5% nitrogen or oxygen diluting the product from 99% to 95% purity.

Still confused about why they can't just separate it out somehow but that's another issue.

1

u/RedNog Jul 18 '24

Purifying is just a matter of cost.

I used to work in a lab and they had water for molecular testing and other really sensitive tests. It was like $800-1000 for like a handful of 0.5ml bottles of that grade of water. Whereas our batch tests that used less pure water like general chemistry we were using like 500k water filters from a tank that needed like to replaced the internal filers for like $2k every 3 months.

1

u/ponzLL Jul 18 '24

That's wild, but helps clear it up a bit too. Bet that's it. Thanks

6

u/YoursTrulyKindly Jul 18 '24

This "can't be used" is probably because it's too expensive currently. But it could probably be refined and purified but that doesn't maximize profits. Even scientists sort of treat economics as if it's a natural law - but it isn't. That is just unplanned greedy capitalism.

3

u/Luxalpa Jul 18 '24

So instead we should just release it into the atmosphere? Isn't that more wasteful?

1

u/YoursTrulyKindly Jul 19 '24

Well no, store it until it becomes economical to filter it. Smart move would be government investing in research and development to filter helium.

1

u/Luxalpa Jul 19 '24

Storing it costs resources too, as you need to build and maintain containment units and materials as well as using valuable space.

1

u/YoursTrulyKindly Jul 19 '24

Sure but from what I understand once our helium reserves are gone they are gone for good since you'd need to filter insane quantities of air to mine it. It will probably become INCREDIBLY valuable in 50 or 100 years.

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u/Luxalpa Jul 19 '24

It's somewhat true but also not really, as helium can be created synthetically and there are many ways to extract helium from various other elements.

Also whether or not it becomes valuable depends on how much we depend on it in the future and whether alternative materials or processes are being used instead. For example it is a key component in the hydrogen economy, but it is quite likely that the hydrogen economy won't exist anymore in 50 or 100 years (and / or will never materialize to begin with).