Helium use in Science and Industry – what demand is sustainable? Richard h clarke

Helium use in Science and Industry – what demand is sustainable?

• Richard H Clarke

• Independent Process and Resources Consultant, Oxford UK

Overview

• Helium market modelling

• High-tech demand

• Long-term strategy: fusion

• Needs based quotas?

Forecast of world maximum deliverable production by region

Demand: what drives it?

Shortage? What shortage?

Helium geo-centre

Helium geo-centre

Helium geo-centre

Helium geo-centre

Overview

• Helium market modelling

• High-tech demand

• Long-term strategy: fusion

• Needs based quotas?

Market: demand by sector (%)

An app that did not happen…

… and one that did, then didn’t

Overview

• Helium market modelling

• High-tech demand

• Long-term strategy: fusion

• Needs based quotas?

System Dynamics

Nuclear fusion and the helium supply problem

Overview

• Helium market modelling

• High-tech demand

• Long-term strategy: fusion

• Needs based quotas?

Helium Inventory

Helium quotas

Future of Helium as a Natural Resource (Routledge, 2012)

• A History of the Helium Industry

• The US Federal Helium Reserve

• Helium in Algeria

• LNG

• Helium in Russia

• India: Harnessing Helium from Earth’s Interior

• Helium from the Air: The Backstop

• Helium Demand

• The Dynamics of the Helium Market

• Closed Cycle Refrigeration - Minimizing Helium Demand in Cryogenic Applications

• Medical Imaging – Why Helium Prevails

• Rising to the Challenges of Changing Liquid Helium Supply on Cryogenic Systems

• for the Research Market

• Helium and Nuclear Fission Energy

• Helium and Fusion Energy

• Substituting Hydrogen for Helium in Cryogenic Applications

• Is There a Helium Problem?

• The Future for Helium

Conclusions

• Helium market currently buoyant

• Qatar 2 filled the gap
• Qatar 3 bidding opened
• Siberian plans continue

• Medium / long term

• 1 Need a better / new pricing formula
• 2 Need better recycling and “swing” capacity
• 3 Users: minimise leaks, inventory, steady nerves!
• 4 Big, new users: avoid helium dependency

What the balloons mean

High tech: MRI

High tech: wafer-fab

High tech: aerospace

High tech: physics

High tech: analysis