A new method to acquire helium gas can reduce global concern
A new method to acquire helium gas can
reduce global concern
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Helium gas is one of the most versatile and
consists of a six-billion dollar market. It is widely used in the field of
medicine and most medical equipment uses this helium gas to operate. Medical
equipment like MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers both use helium as an agent
of cooling. It's a great cooling agent even though the Apollo spacecraft use
helium gas to cool down oxygen and hydrogen.
Helium is a popular choice for plenty of
activities like filling balloons, airships, and weather balloons because of its
low viscosity.
Helium-neon gases are used as barcode
readers in multiple supermarkets..
Helium supports deep-sea drivers when you need to construct a man-made
environment for them you need 80% helium and 20% oxygen. Helium is widely
employed for making a safe climate for the production of semiconductors and
fibre optic cables because helium is not that reactive.
One of the outstanding benefits of helium is
to inflate airbags after any accident happens in the car to protect the driver
from the greater harm.
It also monitors and detect leaks usually in
automotive cooling systems.
Crisis of Helium and discovery of new trail
Helium is a non renewal element, and the
global crisis is a very frightening situation. The significant reason behind
the helium shortage is that central producers like Russia are not able to
fulfil the demands of helium due to the ongoing war with Ukraine. We cannot
imagine running MRI machines as it requires liquid helium to cool down their
magnet.
Without MRI it's unimaginable to perform any
surgery or understand the disease of a patient.
Professor of Oxford university, Aran Cheng,
and her colleagues found a way to obtain helium from the crust of our earth.
The older way to obtain helium was linked to carbon emissions and causing
climate change.
Another professor from the university of
Oxford, Sherwood Lollar, claimed that the world is in a chaotic situation due
to the low supply of helium, however, the method of obtaining it was
destructive for the environment.
Researchers from Oxford university found a
pristine formula to obtain helium from the crust of our earth, this method
takes into account nitrogen which is also found on the earth's crust.
In the method, nitrogen concentration gets
elevated enough to produce gas bubbles in the pores of the rock. This process
can take millions of years to happen, although helium is also part of it and
escapes from the water into a gas bubble, these bubbles have buoyancy although
when the reached to rocks it won't allow them to pass.
Then these nitrogen and helium-rich gas
bubbles gather and form a gas field. In this new process, helium-nitrogen-rich
gas contains no methane or carbon dioxide which is incredible because there is
no carbon emission or carbon footprint.
The new model of obtaining helium can solve
the global crisis of helium gas and save the environment also the old process
to obtain helium involved carbon emission and the new one has zero carbon
footprint. The study was conducted by postdoctoral researchers at Oxford
university.
Reference
New study could help pinpoint hidden helium
gas fields – and avert a. (2023, March 2).
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-03-02-new-study-could-help-pinpoint-hidden-helium-gas-fields-and-avert-global-supply-0
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