A huge reservoir of helium has been found in Babbitt, northern Minnesota. After exploratory drilling found the store of gas hundreds of meters below the earth, further tests have found it to be in “mind-bogglingly” high concentrations.
Helium has uses that go far beyond balloons, being used in everything from MRI machines to separating hot gases and cold liquid fuel during rocket launches, making finding such reserves so important. We rely on it a lot, and estimates vary as to how much of the gas we have left stored within the Earth, – some say between 100-200 years, while David Cole-Hamilton, emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of St Andrews estimated to the Independent in 2019 that we only have 10 years left of party balloons and being able to use MRI machines.
The problem is that once helium escapes, it encounters the buoyant force. Buoyancy is an upward force in a fluid (any flowing substance, including air) exerted on all bodies within it. The force comes from the pressure within the fluid being greater the further down in the fluid you go. The pressure on the bottom of an object within the fluid is higher than at its top, causing the upward force.
If the buoyant force of a fluid is greater than the weight of an object placed within it, the object will float. Helium, being lighter than the other elements in our atmosphere, rises. It’s the same when air is heated inside a hot air balloon, making it less dense per volume inside the balloon than it is outside, causing it to rise.
This takes it to the edge of our atmosphere, where it gradually escapes, for example being blown away by solar winds. Though it can be recaptured and recycled by turning it into a liquid state, this is why it’s sometimes called the only truly unrecoverable element. Recycling is of huge importance, but finding new reserves such as that found in Minnesota is too if we are to continue our use of helium.
After initial drilling at the site showed concentrations of 12.4 percent, further tests found that it was at 13.8 percent.
“That’s just a mind-bogglingly large number,” Thomas Abraham-James, the president and CEO of Pulsar Helium who ran the drill, told Live Science, “because really anything that’s 0.3 percent or 0.5 percent helium or greater is of interest.”
“Comparing this to our extensive database for helium occurrences around the world, we are pleased to say the results from the Jetstream #1 appraisal well are the highest helium concentrations that we have ever seen,” the company added in a statement.
As the gas rises naturally, there would be no need for fracking at the site, according to Abraham-James, with a facility at the surface able to process the helium as and when it is needed.
The team is continuing to assess the reservoir to attain information about its size, shape, and pressure before it is deemed safe and suitable for commercial production.
[H/T: Live Science]
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