Helium Shortage

[elan]

I'd say it would never happen but there's a "fill station" in these parts that is open 24/7 and works on the honor system. You can fill your own bottles with whatever is available.

With reinforced bays and a card reader that keeps the certification card until the fill is done for easier identification of the remains on the walls ? Sorry for the black humor

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

With reinforced bays and a card reader that keeps the certification card until the fill is done for easier identification of the remains on the walls ? Sorry for the black humor

Well... no.

I for one see it as the greatest boon to cave country ever conceived but I also see pink mist in it's future. I'm really conflicted in regards to this operation but it gets mad props from the community.

 

[Paladin]

The world's only helium gas field is right here in the United States. The US Governmaent first took control of helium production to keep the Germans from using it in their Zeppelins. At the time, the Zeppelin was the only aircraft capable of carrying bombs across the Atlantic to attack North America and our government did not want to support them.

We still have the only known helium gas field on the planet and it is starting to dry up.

 

[GrimSleeper]

The world's only helium gas field is right here in the United States. The US Governmaent first took control of helium production to keep the Germans from using it in their Zeppelins. At the time, the Zeppelin was the only aircraft capable of carrying bombs across the Atlantic to attack North America and our government did not want to support them.

We still have the only known helium gas field on the planet and it is starting to dry up.

Fear not, Australia is about to start extracting 150 million cf a year of He from the Timor Sea LNG field, so that'll extend Helium availability by, erm, not very much at all...

We're back to "Deep air, anybody?" again, aren't we... :crazyeye:

 

[Griffo]

Fear not, Australia is about to start extracting 150 million cf a year of He from the Timor Sea LNG field, so that'll extend Helium availability by, erm, not very much at all...

We're back to "Deep air, anybody?" again, aren't we... :crazyeye:

We're already extracting Helium. Just we sell it all to the Chinese under contract.

 

[GrimSleeper]

We're already extracting Helium. Just we sell it all to the Chinese under contract.

Maybe they're planning to fill all the enormous holes Australia has dug to get at the iron ore with water and then create some sort of deep-diving theme park to use all the Helium?

 

[Jared0425]

I've heard of Hydrox as an experimental gas for DEEP diving, BUT the mix has to be around 4-5%. I think this was mentioned in the post above. Once demand for helium starts to skyrocket, then the market will produce more. Simple economics, look at whale oil for an example, found a substitue called kerosine and made it obsolete. Anyways these problems will sort themselves out. And stop using those darn balloons!
Jared

 

[lamont]

Fear not, Australia is about to start extracting 150 million cf a year of He from the Timor Sea LNG field, so that'll extend Helium availability by, erm, not very much at all...

We're back to "Deep air, anybody?" again, aren't we... :crazyeye:

That is actually 2.2% of the annual worldwide demand, and given that Australia only has 0.3% of the population it should work out well for them...

 

[GrimSleeper]

That is actually 2.2% of the annual worldwide demand, and given that Australia only has 0.3% of the population it should work out well for them...

I have a sneaking suspicion that won't bring down the price of gas in the South Pacific any... As OzGriffo posted earlier, it all gets sold to China. :depressed:

 

[dwhthediver]

If you get "Wreck Diver" there was an article by Valerie Van Heest in one issue that dealt with a commercial diver hired to do the first dives on the "Carl Bradley" and he used hydrogen in the late fifties to do those dives.