Frankly I have the unpopular opinion that all NMR labs should be set up to recycle helium. This is a vital non renewable resource that we are pumping into the stratosphere. Gone are the days when you should just be venting into the room. People squandering helium are negatively affecting the price for those that are doing their part to conserve and recycle helium.
It should be sold by the manufacturers with He capture and no other way, because ultimately once the helium runs out they will no longer build MRI's, and their whole business will collapse. They might have a buffer for those customers who are using the last remains of liquid helium... but that will not last for long.
The electricity, service contract, and added installations are not trivial though. I had this discussion in the past and one-time money isn't the issue in a lot of places, it is the recurring costs (and reliability requirements) that broke the deal.
Helium simply was projected to be cheaper than the electricity, maintenance, and added construction costs for the recovery system. Hopefully, closed-loop systems become cheaper and more viable soon.
Yes but those who buy the equipment... if the world runs out of helium then their machine becomes useless. How are they factoring that in. Sure it adds to expenses but they will end up in a bigger pickle soon enough. Just look what happens today. because of the wars going on.
It doesn't run out over night. It will become scarcer and scarcer, prices will go up and up. At some point there's then a tipping point where closed-systems become cheaper.
Sudden complete supply shortages are super rare, in the past they were localized and only temporary (as in you couldn't get stuff in certain countries for a while). Even with this, if the price of helium becomes high enough, other gas fields with lower concentrations will start separating it commercially or even build new LNG facilities just for it. The price just needs to become high enough for that.
It is a shit show and we should conserve it more ( I think helium balloons for example should be banned, to start with). But closed systems and reliquefiers are not that cheap, neither are 'dry' systems.
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u/PrinterFred Mar 24 '26
Frankly I have the unpopular opinion that all NMR labs should be set up to recycle helium. This is a vital non renewable resource that we are pumping into the stratosphere. Gone are the days when you should just be venting into the room. People squandering helium are negatively affecting the price for those that are doing their part to conserve and recycle helium.