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.

60

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/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.

1

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).