Helium

Helium was first detected in the Sun's spectrum in 1868. The solar line was first noted by Pierre Janssen and Joseph Norman Lockyer, and Lockyer named the element.

William Ramsay found helium on Earth in 1895 in London. Independently, Per Teodor Cleve and Nils Abraham Langlet found it in Uppsala, Sweden.

After hydrogen, helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, and it is present in all stars.

The atmosphere holds only about 5 parts per million of helium by volume, and extracting it from air is uneconomical.

On Earth, helium forms by alpha-particle decay of radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium. Natural gas can contain up to 7% helium.

Helium boils at -268.928 °C (4.222 K). Its density is 0.000164 grams per cubic centimetre, and it is a gas at 20 °C.

The US Geological Survey estimates world helium production at 180 million cubic metres in 2024, up 4% on 2023.

In 2024 the United States extracted an estimated 68 million cubic metres from natural gas and withdrew another 13 million from the Cliffside Field storage. Qatar produced an estimated 64 million, Russia 17 and Algeria 11.

Crude helium from US plants generally ranges from 50% to 80% helium. Grade-A helium is 99.997% helium or greater.

US sales of Grade-A and gaseous helium were an estimated 81 million cubic metres in 2024, valued at an estimated $1.1 billion. The estimated base price of Grade-A helium was about $14 per cubic metre.

The Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 mandated privatization of the US Federal Helium System. Its assets were sold in two lots on 25 January 2024.

The European Union adopted a ban on helium imports from Russia, effective 26 September 2024.

Of the 56 million cubic metres of Grade-A and gaseous helium consumed in the United States in 2024, analytical, engineering, lab, science and specialty gases took 22%, lifting gas 18% and magnetic resonance imaging 17%.

Controlled atmospheres, fibre optics and semiconductors took 15% of US consumption in 2024, welding 8%, leak detection 5% and diving 5%.

Helium cools the Large Hadron Collider and the superconducting magnets in MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers.

Helium was used to cool liquid oxygen and hydrogen for the Apollo vehicles, and it fills balloons, weather balloons and airships because of its low density.

Deep-sea divers breathe a mix of 80% helium and 20% oxygen.

Nothing substitutes for helium in cryogenic applications that need temperatures below -429 degrees Fahrenheit. Hydrogen can replace it in some lighter-than-air uses and argon in welding.