this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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No, no it could not.
The stuff used in balloons isn't pure enough to be used for cryogenic purposes, which is what people really want it for.
And before you ask purifying it is really difficult.
Incorrect. It is not found naturally pure, it must be distilled. Balloon helium vs cryogenic helium is like comparing ice distillation vs vapor distillation of liquor. One is cheaper but both are using up a limited resource.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_distillation
yeah it's distilled off from nitrogen-heavy natural gas, like you could do with nitrogen-heavy gas without helium, or even air. all three processes are done commercially. the issue is that helium bearing natural gas is limited in supply and getting low enough temperature at latter stages of helium refining and liquefying requires bespoke facility. this part is hard
“Lookie lookie, I got a wiki!”
-you, probably.
You guys realize this is the same shit anti vaxxers do? Spend five minutes reading a fucking Wikipedia article and suddenly you’re an expert?
Christ I hate you people.
I have a degree in this stuff. Chill.
The lemmy community shows itself bare when you start talking about something you have professional experience in. Its hilarious, in a humor in despair type of way. I've seen it on stuff im expirenced in and this is not the first time I've talked about how the community dissapoints me about it. Skepticism is fine and welcome . . . If you're able to change your mind when you're wrong.
You need 0° to chill properly though.
Everyone in this thread has a degree, apparently.
I sure do, in fact I've emptied more helium tanks in my career than 99.99% of the population I'm certain (10 years in gas chromatography). I know that it's more profitable to sell 99% pure helium as "party use" than it is to sell the quality of helium I use, the difference is I use enough of it that there's still some profit there, (the same reason the US of A sold off the "extra reserves") and as long as it's an unlimited resource (short term it certainly seems to be from the capitalist mindset) they're going to milk every cent of profit out of it as quickly as possible, so they'll still make some and sell it to me.
No helium found on earth ever, was pure enough for cryo. Not even close. All helium is found in low concentrations and spun extracted to concentrate and start to purify it. Then there are additional filter methods to finish concentrating it. Removing the hydrogen is about the hardest because it's also abundant and small and light.
But helium used in balloons can absolutely be concentrated and purified.
hydrogen is the easy one, because you can burn it off on catalytic bed, then pass through bed of 3A MS to trap water. done
separating excess oxygen and nitrogen is easier and there's already some nitrogen (as much as 50%) in crude helium
yes you can, crude helium + air mixture (few %) is used in first stages of cryogenic helium purifying
Jesus Christ not this guy again....