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How to: Create Helium?

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Helium

I had a job interview at a plant near my home that separated and liquified gases from the atmosphere. They separated out Oxygen, Nitrogen, Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon. But the Helium they just vented back to the atmosphere. I couldn't understand why they did that.
 
Brevor they actually did Krypton and Xenon? I'd wonder why they'd bother with that stuff the percentages are so low I don't see it as being profitable, unless that's the only way to get those gasses. By bulk I don't see how they could make any money off of anything other than Liquid Nitrogen and Oxygen. Considering Helium is slightly higher in concentration than Krypton it probably just had to do with the volume of the gasses. Argon is almost 1% of the makeup of air, but Krypton is only about 1ppm, and Xenon is an abysmal .09ppm! Helium is 5ppm, surprised they didn't do that one as well while they were at it. I'm guessing the major reason is there simply isn't a big market for the gas.
 
There is no component that able to be liquified at the vacuum environment except of helium. Only helium is a gas can be liquid at the vacuum environment.
 
I had a job interview at a plant near my home that separated and liquified gases from the atmosphere. They separated out Oxygen, Nitrogen, Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon. But the Helium they just vented back to the atmosphere. I couldn't understand why they did that.

Was that East Chicago, Gary, or Burns Harbor?
 
Somebody send audioguru a balloon for x'mas. Don't want him climbing trees in winter now...
Today I was at the park flying my model RC airplanes and I saw 6 helium balloons flying away. I chased them with my airplane but they went too far and I flew my airplane back.
Also I saw a hawk chasing a little red squirrel around and around a tree that was near me. I scared the hawk away.

I can climb a tree with no problem. Today it is sunny and warm with no snow. Tomorrow there will be some snow for my dog to eat.
 
Brevor they actually did Krypton and Xenon? I'd wonder why they'd bother with that stuff the percentages are so low I don't see it as being profitable, unless that's the only way to get those gasses. By bulk I don't see how they could make any money off of anything other than Liquid Nitrogen and Oxygen. Considering Helium is slightly higher in concentration than Krypton it probably just had to do with the volume of the gasses. Argon is almost 1% of the makeup of air, but Krypton is only about 1ppm, and Xenon is an abysmal .09ppm! Helium is 5ppm, surprised they didn't do that one as well while they were at it. I'm guessing the major reason is there simply isn't a big market for the gas.
Sceadwian,
I may be mistaken about the Xenon, It was almost 3 years ago that I was there. Im sure they did Krypton though. They produce huge quantities of liquid gases so Im sure even the rare gases would accumulate rather quickly.
 
D:

You crucify Mr. Jesus even when he is afk...

Anyway, i was thinking of launching many balloons with 1 flash-LED and a button battery inside, on X-mas, but since with one bottle of helium i can only inflate about 10 balloons... yeah, i was thinking if it was possible to "produce/create/etc" helium.
 
I had interviews at both Gary and Burns Harbor.

I helped put Burns Harbor together and spent a couple of years at East Chicago and Gary. Most of what I did was ancilliary stuff like Driox, Booster compressors and pipeline metering stations.
I remember babysitting the Broadway street booster station in Gary during the winter. It had a small steam heater that was fed with 100# steam. One minute you froze, the next you roasted.
How about the 39,000 hp Brown Bovari air compressors at BH that could only be started on Sunday night and had a jacking system that always kept the main shaft rotating always.

East Chicago was a specialty gas plant. It produced lots of different gasses. The Linde star saphire plant was across the street.

The combined output of all 3 sites was about 11,000 tons/day of distilled air products when I was there in the 70's. That's 22,000,000 lbs/day, with Xenon occupying 0.1ppm of the atmosphere, you'll get about 2 lbs of xenon/day. Krypton is 10x more prevalent so you'll collect 20lbs/day. I don't know if all of the plants are equipped with Krypton/Xenon extraction capabilities, I know East Chicago is for sure.
 
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D:
Anyway, i was thinking of launching many balloons with 1 flash-LED and a button battery inside, on X-mas, but since with one bottle of helium i can only inflate about 10 balloons... yeah, i was thinking if it was possible to "produce/create/etc" helium.
You could electrolyse water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will create as much lift as helium, but it is extremely inflammable. If it mixes with the oxygen that you are producing at the same time, the mixture is explosive.
 
I helped put Burns Harbor together and spent a couple of years at East Chicago and Gary. Most of what I did was ancilliary stuff like Driox, Booster compressors and pipeline metering stations.
I remember babysitting the Broadway street booster station in Gary during the winter. It had a small steam heater that was fed with 100# steam. One minute you froze, the next you roasted.
How about the 39,000 hp Brown Bovari air compressors at BH that could only be started on Sunday night and had a jacking system that always kept the main shaft rotating always.

East Chicago was a specialty gas plant. It produced lots of different gasses. The Linde star saphire plant was across the street.

The combined output of all 3 sites was about 11,000 tons/day of distilled air products when I was there in the 70's. That's 22,000,000 lbs/day, with Xenon occupying 0.1ppm of the atmosphere, you'll get about 2 lbs of xenon/day. Krypton is 10x more prevalent so you'll collect 20lbs/day. I don't know if all of the plants are equipped with Krypton/Xenon extraction capabilities, I know East Chicago is for sure.
Hi Jaguar,
Interesting that you helped build those plants. I remember all the towers had numbers, but I can't remember which is which. Burns Harbor has 3 towers now but the eastern most tower is no longer used. Yes the compressors at Burns were very impressive. Babysitting the station, Thats the same job I was applying for. Do you know why they don't want the Helium ?
 
You could electrolyse water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will create as much lift as helium, but it is extremely inflammable. If it mixes with the oxygen that you are producing at the same time, the mixture is explosive.
Hmm, i never thought of that, if the balloon really lifts with hydrogen then i probably will make some tests with it.

One the other hand, if hydrogen and oxygen is explosive, and i insert a flashing LED with a button battery inside... it will blow up? LOL
 
Yes, if you don't separate the hydrogen from the oxygen, it won't have much lift and it will definitely be explosive. A flashing LED probably won't produce sparks but you don't want to try.

When you electrolyse water, hydrogen comes from one electrode and oxygen comes from the other.
 
An ordinary rubber or latex balloon quickly leaks helium away because the size of its pores are almost the same size as the molecules of helium. I don't know about the size of molecules of hydrogen which might be smaller.

A metalized plastic film balloon like the one I found holds helium for at least one month. My balloon still flies and it is over one month old.
 
Hi Jaguar,
Interesting that you helped build those plants. I remember all the towers had numbers, but I can't remember which is which. Burns Harbor has 3 towers now but the eastern most tower is no longer used. Yes the compressors at Burns were very impressive. Babysitting the station, Thats the same job I was applying for. Do you know why they don't want the Helium ?

I think they want the helium but because it liquifies at -457 degrees F somehow it becomes hard to get. In Linde speak, those towers are columns. Nothing was numbered in the 70's. That must be some attempt at error proofing.
 
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I've been tracking this thread since the original poster started it, it simply floors me that we're four pages in on conjecture, joke's guessing and off topic conversation. The original poster hasn't even commented since the initial post!
 
I've been tracking this thread since the original poster started it, it simply floors me that we're four pages in on conjecture, joke's guessing and off topic conversation. The original poster hasn't even commented since the initial post!
Maybe you should take a closer look.
 
<cough> Okay so I'm a little daft sometimes, I miss the posts somehow Fluence =) Surprised you didn't think of Hydrogen before though since it's easier to create than helium, and the aluminized balloons hold it well. All you need for good Hydrogen generation from lightly salted water is a power source and graphite electrodes (pencil lead) Mind you you need a large surface area for the electrode for any significant production.
 
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