Comment by stevenwoo
10 hours ago
All natural gas deposits contain helium at various concentrations, it's only commercially worth harvesting above a certain percentage but speculate the problem is the US can't just fill the Qatar loss in supply immediately since we have plentiful natural gas.
An unusually large helium deposit in the US made the news recently, not sure if it's being exploited:
https://www.minnpost.com/other-nonprofit-media/2024/07/what-...
Makes sense.
We have so much gas where I live that there are places it’s just flared off and burned, because it’s less greenhouse emissions than it escaping unburned.
If it's being burned, it isn't helium.
Today, I learned Helium does burn, and when it burns, it forms Carbon.
https://www.britannica.com/science/chemical-element/Processe...
Granted, the flare gas probably doesn't reach the prerequisite 100M-200M kelvin. I suspect high pressure is also required so the Helium stays close to the heat source.
Parent is referring to natural gas
Helium deposits don't exist is the thing, the same structures in the Earth which trap methane gas also trap helium gas and some of them trap enough to make recovery economically viable.