Helium Production
Helium is relatively scarce on Earth, even though it is the second-most common element in the universe. It is a non-toxic, colorless, odorless, tasteless, inert, monoatomic gas. It is the first noble gas in the periodic table of elements, and its boiling point is the lowest among all of the elements. These properties make helium absolutely unique – there is no substitute, and no natural or manufactured replacement for it.
Helium cannot be recovered from a landfill and it is prohibitively expensive to extract from the atmosphere because its concentration is so low. Today, all commercial helium supply on earth comes from underground reservoirs, in which helium produced by the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium is concentrated and trapped over hundreds of millions of years.
Helium has historically been produced as a by-product of certain conventional natural gas projects (less than 3% of natural gas deposits have more than trace amounts of helium), and those sources account for the bulk of the world’s helium supply today. The process of drilling for helium is identical to drilling for natural gas, allowing for the use of the same rigs, tools and personnel in these operations. However, exploration for helium is technically challenging and requires significant technical knowledge related to helium generation (from the underground decay of uranium and thorium), concentration and migration through formation fluids, exsolution and migration to traps in a gas phase, and reservoir evolution through time. Specialized expertise and methods across multiple disciplines are required to effectively search for new helium fields.
Once a new helium field has been discovered it is gathered to a centralized processing facility, purified, and sold as gas or liquid. The gaseous purification process uses an extremely reliable PSA (pressure swing adsorption) membrane technology, and cryogenic technologies are utilized for liquefaction.
Helium Separation/Purification
Because even 0.35% helium in a bulk-gas is considered a high-concentration, the first step is to separate the helium from the other components of the bulk gas stream. This can be accomplished through three principal technologies, which are often combined depending on the composition of the gas stream:
Helium Liquefication
In order to economically ship helium around the globe, like LNG, purified helium gas must be liquefied prior to shipping so that it will fill a smaller volume. Liquid helium product also addresses a wider market, including those end-users who require the low temperatures of liquid helium. In the larger global helium plants, the gas is liquefied and stored into specialized 40-foot long ISO intermodal shipping containers. Due to the high-value of helium, it can also be economically shipped regionally as a gas in high-pressure tube trailers, although shipping costs for helium gas are higher than for liquid helium.
Our Company
North American Helium is a helium exploration and production company founded in 2013.
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North American Helium has the largest helium land position in Saskatchewan.
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We minimize the impacts on the environment and meet all applicable regulations.
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Helium has no substitute. There is no natural of manufactured replacement for helium.
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