72. Helium

Summary

The Economics of Everyday Things – Episode 72: Helium

Hosted by Freakonomics Network & Zachary Crockett

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Introduction

In Episode 72 of The Economics of Everyday Things, journalist Zachary Crockett delves into the intriguing world of helium—a gas most commonly associated with party balloons but possessing a multitude of critical applications. This episode uncovers the economic, scientific, and geopolitical facets of helium, highlighting its indispensable role in various industries and the challenges surrounding its supply and sustainability.

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The Magical Properties of Helium

Sophia Hayes, a professor of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, sets the stage by emphasizing the wonder of helium:

[02:21] Sophia Hayes: "Imagine going back to a time before balloons and that you brought out this object that would float in the air. It's magical no matter how you slice it."

Helium's unique characteristics make it both versatile and valuable:

• Noble Gas: Helium is one of only six naturally occurring noble gases, known for their stability and low reactivity. This inertness allows helium to be used in environments where chemical reactions must be minimized.

• Low Boiling Point: Helium remains a liquid at extremely low temperatures, making it an excellent coolant for superconducting magnets in MRI machines and other high-tech equipment.

• Lightness: As the second lightest element, helium is lighter than air, enabling applications ranging from balloons to advanced aerospace technologies.

Sophia Hayes further elucidates the origins of helium:

[02:46] Sophia Hayes: "Where that helium comes from is the decay of radioactive elements. And as they decay, they spit out an atom of helium... every time you see a balloon that's billions of years of the age of the earth undergoing that radioactive decay."

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Diverse Applications of Helium

While helium's buoyant properties make it a staple at celebrations, its industrial and scientific applications are far more substantial.

1. Medical Industry: MRI Machines

Phil Kornbluth, president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, highlights the medical sector's dependence on helium:

[07:07] Zachary Crockett: "Historically, that honor goes to the medical industry. In particular, MRI machines... each one holds an average of around $60,000 worth of helium."

Helium's role in MRI technology is pivotal. Its cooling properties enable the superconducting magnets within MRI scanners to function efficiently, providing detailed imaging of the human body.

2. Semiconductor Manufacturing

The semiconductor industry has emerged as helium's largest and fastest-growing market:

[07:50] Zachary Crockett: "In recent times, helium has found an even larger market in the semiconductor industry... every product that contains a semiconductor chip... benefits from helium."

Helium's inertness prevents contamination during the manufacturing process, ensuring the purity and functionality of semiconductor devices used in everything from smartphones to automobiles.

3. Aerospace and NASA

NASA stands as helium's largest single consumer:

[07:50] Phil Kornbluth: "Their largest single buyer is NASA, which uses it to cool hydrogen and fuel, pressurize rocket engines, and test for leaks in oxygen supply lines."

Helium is crucial for space missions, powering rocket launches and maintaining the integrity of critical systems under extreme conditions.

4. Everyday Uses: Balloons and Beyond

Although only a fraction of the helium market, balloons remain a familiar and symbolic use:

[05:48] Sophia Hayes: "So party balloons, blimps, all these things that we think of for lifting applications are extremely important also."

Helium-filled balloons, while seemingly trivial, represent the broad accessibility and cultural significance of helium in everyday life.

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Helium Production and the Supply Chain

The journey of helium from the Earth's mantle to its various applications is complex and fraught with challenges.

Extraction and Processing

Beau Sears, CEO of Helix Exploration, explains the extraction process:

[13:43] Beau Sears: "Helium is produced just like natural gas is. It remains stored underground until you poke a hole in the ground to get it."

Helium extraction typically occurs alongside natural gas drilling in regions like Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Companies extract helium as a byproduct, processing it through cryogenic methods to achieve the necessary purity levels for different applications.

Privatization and Market Control

Historically, helium production in the United States was dominated by government-controlled reserves:

[09:57] Zachary Crockett: "During this time, the price of helium was stable and fairly affordable for businesses that needed it. But in the 1990s, the government decided to get out of the helium business."

The Helium Privatization Act of 1996 marked the transition to a predominantly privatized helium market, with companies like Exxon Mobil becoming major producers.

Market Dynamics and Pricing

Helium pricing is highly volatile, influenced by supply disruptions and geopolitical factors:

[16:46] Phil Kornbluth: "It varies a lot based on where you are in the supply chain and what quantity you're buying under what contract term."

Bulk purchases are typically made in units of 1,000 cubic feet (MCF), with prices fluctuating based on market conditions. For example, a standard canister of 291 cubic feet may cost around $500, translating to approximately 80 cents per balloon.

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Supply Chain Challenges and Shortages

The helium market is notoriously fragile, susceptible to various disruptions:

Historical Shortages

Phil Kornbluth outlines the history of helium shortages:

[17:42] Phil Kornbluth: "2006 to 2007 was helium shortage 1.0... Shortage 4.0 was early 22 through the end of 23."

Each shortage period has underscored the supply chain's vulnerability to factors like plant outages, accidents, and geopolitical tensions.

Geopolitical Influences

Beau Sears highlights the impact of international conflicts on helium supply:

[18:40] Beau Sears: "Geopolitically, helium is a hot button issue because half of the helium comes from Qatar and Algeria... Russia has a large resource that they are currently sending to China right now."

Such dependencies on foreign sources exacerbate supply risks, making the helium market sensitive to global political dynamics.

Prioritization During Shortages

During supply constraints, critical industries receive priority over less essential uses:

[19:08] Beau Sears: "Helium is very much a triage unit. The most important users, the MRI, chip manufacturing, fiber optics, those are the most high volume users of helium... balloon guys... often have to source their helium elsewhere."

This prioritization ensures that vital sectors like healthcare and technology maintain their helium supply, often at the expense of recreational and commercial uses.

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Sustainability and Future Concerns

The finite nature of helium and its loss to outer space present long-term sustainability issues.

Exhaustible Resource

Sophia Hayes articulates the unsustainable trajectory of helium usage:

[21:52] Sophia Hayes: "There have been different estimates that at the rate of use, we may run out of helium one day... we are using it up faster than it's being replenished."

Helium's escape into space means that mined helium is essentially lost permanently, raising concerns about the longevity of its availability.

Recycling and Technological Innovations

Efforts to mitigate helium scarcity include:

• Recapture Systems: Developing systems to trap and recycle helium in applications where it can be reused.

• Efficient Usage: Advances in technology, such as more efficient MRI machines that use significantly less helium.

These measures aim to extend the utility of existing helium supplies and reduce waste.

Changing Consumer Behavior

Sophia Hayes suggests a cultural shift in helium usage:

[22:52] Sophia Hayes: "Balloons should be a luxury item rather than a common item... if you looked at that balloon and realized how incredibly magical it is... that's a pretty amazing thing."

By valuing helium more consciously, society can help preserve this precious resource for essential uses.

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Exploration and Future Supply

Beau Sears emphasizes the ongoing efforts to discover new helium reserves:

[20:34] Beau Sears: "In order to fill the void, we need to find more molecules. And the only way to do that is to explore for it. And that's what we're doing."

Helix Exploration and similar firms are actively searching for untapped helium deposits, employing geological expertise to identify promising locations. However, helium exploration remains risky and capital-intensive, with no guarantees of finding economically viable sources.

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Conclusion

Helium, a seemingly simple gas, plays a crucial role in modern technology, healthcare, and even space exploration. Its unique properties make it irreplaceable in many applications, yet its supply is precarious and subject to numerous challenges. As demand continues to grow, particularly in the semiconductor industry, the economic and environmental sustainability of helium becomes increasingly urgent. Addressing these issues requires a combination of technological innovation, strategic exploration, and mindful consumption to ensure that helium remains available for the critical needs of the future.

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Notable Quotes

• Sophia Hayes on the magic of helium:

  [02:21] "Imagine going back to a time before balloons and that you brought out this object that would float in the air. It's magical no matter how you slice it."

• Phil Kornbluth on industry priorities:

  [19:08] "Helium is very much a triage unit... balloon guys... often have to source their helium elsewhere."

• Sophia Hayes on sustainability concerns:

  [21:52] "We are using it up faster than it's being replenished... that's an unsustainable situation."

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Additional Production Credits

• Produced by: Zachary Crockett and Sarah Lilly
• Mixed by: Jeremy Johnston
• Assisted by: Daniel Moritz Rabson

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For more episodes and to explore the hidden economic stories behind everyday items, visit Freakonomics.com.

Transcript

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[Beau Sears]

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[Steven Dubner]

Hey there, it's Steven Dubner from Freakonomics Radio, and I am busting into this Economics of Everyday Things episode to tell you about two upcoming Freakonomics Radio live shows in San Francisco on January 3rd and in Los Angeles on February 13th. For tickets, go to Freakonomics.com live shows One word I am told that tickets are going fast, so you might want to do this soon again, that is Freakonomics.com live shows January 3rd in San Francisco, February 13th in LA. I'll be there and I hope you will too. One more thing while I have you. If you like the episode on helium you are about to hear, check out the two recent Freakonomics Radio episodes on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which, as you can imagine, uses quite a bit of helium. As always, thanks for listening.

[Zachary Crockett]

Most of us have gone to a party store to buy balloons and the process is pretty simple. You pick out the color or design you want, an employee fills it up with gas from a big cylinder behind the register, and it rises as if possessed by a spirit.

[Sophia Hayes]

I mean, imagine going back to a time before balloons and that you brought out this object that would float in the air. It's magical no matter how you slice it.

[Zachary Crockett]

That's Sophia Hayes. She's a professor of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, and she says that while the balloon tends to get all the glory at the birthday party, the stuff inside of it is the true hero.

[Sophia Hayes]

Where that helium comes from is the decay of radioactive elements. And as they decay, they spit out an atom of helium. So every time you see a balloon that's billions of years of the age of the earth undergoing that radioactive decay of a very small number of elements that are in the crust.

[Zachary Crockett]

Now, it may seem a little silly that a billion year process ends up with a floating balloon that says happy birthday. But helium has all kinds of other applications. It's used inside MRI machines to manufacture semiconductors and to test leaks in rocket ships. And getting this stuff out of the ground is a multi billion dollar business.

[Beau Sears]

The typical cost of mobilizing and demobilizing a rig, typical day rates of drilling. You know, these things can be pretty expensive, but helium is quite valuable. So it's worth the cost to go out there and look for the stuff.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the Freakonomics radio network, this is the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. Today, helium. In 1868, astronomers observed a yellow wavelength of light in the spectrum of the sun. It was soon deemed to be a previously unknown element, and it was named helium, after the Greek word for sun. By the late 19th century, helium gas was also discovered on earth in large underground natural gas deposits. And scientists began to realize just how remarkable it was.

[Sophia Hayes]

Well, it's not as glamorous as something like platinum or gold, but helium is extremely special and magical.

[Zachary Crockett]

Again, that's Sophia Hayes. She says that helium has many properties that make it stand out. For starters, it's one of only six naturally occurring noble gases, Highly stable elements that rarely form compounds with other substances. They're called noble by analogy to aristocrats who don't mix with the common folk.

[Sophia Hayes]

For the everyday person, what it means is those atoms do not like to bond with anything else. We have to work extra hard if we want to create those chemical bonds.

[Zachary Crockett]

Helium's noble status means we can use it without worrying about undesirable reactions. It can also be cooled to extreme temperatures without turning into a solid. This allows it to act as a powerful coolant inside machines.

[Sophia Hayes]

It can cool things into the millikelvin regime. The temperature of outer space is about 3 Kelvin, so this is below the temperature of outer space. And only helium is able to do that.

[Zachary Crockett]

Its molecules are incredibly small, capable of permeating almost anything. And it's the second lightest element known to mankind. Only trailing hydrogen, it's lighter than air.

[Sophia Hayes]

So party balloons, blimps, all these things that we think of for lifting applications are extremely important also.

[Zachary Crockett]

So when you fill a balloon with helium, like what's happening inside that makes it rise.

[Sophia Hayes]

Those atoms or molecules, as they begin to move and push on the container, they exert tiny amounts of pressure. And if they are lighter than air, the air around it is heavier. So the air displaces downwards, and the object gets lifted upwards by the pressure of all those tiny collisions with the interior of the balloon.

[Zachary Crockett]

All of these special properties make helium a very desirable product. And nobody knows the market better than Phil Kornbluth.

[Phil Kornbluth]

I'm the president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, which specializes in commercial issues related to the global helium business.

[Zachary Crockett]

Kornbluth has been in the helium business for more than 40 years. He says the market for this stuff is much bigger than people realize.

[Phil Kornbluth]

Most folks only are familiar with party balloons and the Goodyear blimp and stuff like that. Well, they're about 15% of the US market and about probably 10% of the global market. So, you know, significant, but it's not the biggest application.

[Zachary Crockett]

Historically, that honor goes to the medical industry. In particular, MRI machines, those big tubes that create detailed scans of your bones, muscles, and blood vessels. There are more than 13 of these machines in the US alone, and each one holds an average of around $60,000 worth of helium.

[Phil Kornbluth]

Liquid helium, which is the coldest substance on the planet, is used as a refrigerant in the superconducting magnets that are the guts of MRI scanners. These extremely powerful magnets become superconductors at liquid helium temperatures, which are just a little bit above absolute zero.

[Zachary Crockett]

In recent times, helium has found an even larger market in the semiconductor industry. Because it's unreactive, helium is used in factories to sweep out other gas molecules and to deposit chemicals onto silicon wafers without introducing impurities. Every product that contains a semiconductor chip, from cell phones to dishwashers to SUVs, benefits from helium.

[Phil Kornbluth]

They're predicting huge growth in demand for helium for chips. So chip manufacturing is going to leave MRI in the dust as the number one application in the coming years.

[Zachary Crockett]

Helium's uses don't stop there. Its largest single buyer is NASA, which uses it to cool hydrogen and fuel, pressurize rocket engines, and test for leaks in oxygen supply lines. The cost of helium for a typical space launch runs around 12 million bucks. Altogether, experts estimate that anywhere from 2.5 to $4 billion worth of helium gas is sold around the world every year. And most of it comes from the United States.

[Phil Kornbluth]

The US Is the largest producer. We produce just under half of the world's supply. But at one point, the U.S. produced more than 90% of the world's helium. So it's diminished from what it once was.

[Zachary Crockett]

For years, helium production in the United States was mostly controlled by the government. In the 1920s, the feds set up the National Helium Reserve, a giant facility in Amarillo, Texas. During the space race in the 1950s and 60s, it stockpiled massive amounts of helium for rocket launches and built a pipeline extending from Texas to Kansas.

[Phil Kornbluth]

The thinking in the government when the stockpile was established was that we're going to need a reserve of helium to support the military and aerospace program. We had a huge amount of helium stored more than 10 years world supply.

[Zachary Crockett]

During this time, the price of helium was stable and fairly affordable for businesses that needed it. But in the 1990s, the government decided to get out of the helium business.

[Phil Kornbluth]

Somebody in Washington said, this is stupid. Why are we storing that much helium in the ground? Let's sell it off and pay off the federal debt. A bill was passed, the Helium Privatization act of 1996, that set up the disposal of the Federal Reserve.

[Zachary Crockett]

Over the next few decades, the government auctioned off most of its helium. Earlier this year, the National Helium Reserve's remaining assets were sold to a private firm. Today, America's helium business is almost entirely privatized. And that's partly because getting it out of the ground is a costly endeavor. That's coming up.

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[Beau Sears]

Helium is produced just like natural gas is. It remains stored underground until you poke a hole in the ground to get it.

[Zachary Crockett]

Sears is the CEO of Helix Exploration, a company that searches for new pockets of helium and sets up drilling operations. He says the vast majority of helium in the US Comes from the fields in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. It's extracted as sort of a secondary product by companies like Exxon Mobil that are already drilling for natural gas.

[Beau Sears]

Most of the helium comes from gigantic fields. For instance, in the United States, Exxon Mobil is the largest domestic producer of helium. By virtue of their field in Wyoming, they produce a gas that contains various constituents, 0.6% of which is helium. And because they're producing such sheer volumes, they're able to extract the helium rather economically.

[Zachary Crockett]

Once this gas mix is out of the ground, it goes to a processing plant. In some cases, the extraction company owns its own plant. In others, it has long term contracts with an industrial gas refinery. Impurities like water, CO2, mercury and nitrogen are removed, and the gas goes through a cryogenic process that freezes all the other impurities and isolates the helium. Then it's liquefied and sent out for distribution.

[Beau Sears]

It goes into a liquid helium ISO container, and that contains roughly a million cubic feet of gas equivalent in liquid form. They take that to a region that needs helium, and then they run that liquid through what they call a trans fill station and they repackage it in smaller parcels, for instance. Think of it as a Sausage maker. So they take liquid helium and they fill cylinders for the balloon folks. They fill gaseous tube trailers to go longer distances, or they fill liquid dewars for hospitals and MRIs. That's usually how helium is distributed across the world.

[Zachary Crockett]

As a final product, helium is produced in a number of different grades that are defined by the Compressed Gas Association. They're expressed as a percentage of purity.

[Beau Sears]

Typically, you speak in five nines, four nines, two nines, you know, 99%, 99.999%. Five nines is the creme de la crop. If you're selling it to MRIs, you want six nines. That's very, very ultra pure gas. For balloons, all you need is a very low purity.

[Zachary Crockett]

But even the low quality helium in balloons still has to be pure enough not to cause any problems.

[Beau Sears]

If there's some dangerous impurities in that gas and they inhale it for the squeaky voice effect, there's a problem there. So typically the helium you get for birthday parties is, say, 98% pure.

[Zachary Crockett]

For those who buy all of this helium, the pricing can be very complicated. Phil Kornbluth, the helium consultant, spends most of his time helping clients navigate the market.

[Phil Kornbluth]

It varies a lot based on where you are in the supply chain and what quantity you're buying under what contract term.

[Zachary Crockett]

In bulk, helium is generally sold in units of 1000 cubic feet or MCF. But as it moves down the supply chain, it's broken up into smaller containers and can be sold by the cubic foot or the liter. A party store, for instance, might buy a standard canister containing 291 cubic feet of helium for around $500. That's enough to fill something like 611 inch latex balloons, which means the store pays about 80 cents for the helium in each balloon. A large party store can easily go through 10 of these canisters every week. But if you're buying helium, you never know what you're going to pay from week to week because the supply is unstable.

[Phil Kornbluth]

2006 to 2007 was helium shortage 1.0. 2.0 was somewhere in 2011 to the end of 2013. Shortage 3.0 was 2018 to early 2020. And then shortage 4.0 was early 22 through the end of 23. The supply chain is what I would call fragile.

[Zachary Crockett]

The helium market is extremely susceptible to supply chain disruptions. For starters, there are plant outages, fires, and even explosions.

[Phil Kornbluth]

Most of these plants are hydrocarbon production plants. They have explosive stuff there. And if somebody screws up, these plants can blow up.

[Zachary Crockett]

Sears says that as with oil, the industry is also affected by international conflict.

[Beau Sears]

Geopolitically, helium is a hot button issue because half of Helam comes from Qatar and Algeria. And then Russia has a large resource that they are currently sending to China right now. So lots of things can happen geopolitically where our supply will be adversely affected.

[Zachary Crockett]

During shortages, certain customers tend to get deprioritized, especially those deemed to be less than critical, like the party store owners.

[Beau Sears]

Helium is very much a triage unit. The most important users, the mri, chip manufacturing, fiber optics, those are the most high volume users of helium. So they'll usually get the most product and then you go all the way down to the balloon guys and oftentimes they are completely cut out and they have to source their helium somewhere else.

[Zachary Crockett]

So the balloon guys are at the bottom of the pecking order?

[Beau Sears]

I would say so, yes.

[Zachary Crockett]

That's unfortunate for party enthusiasts.

[Beau Sears]

In times of shortages, they'll blend that gas to save some money because they don't know when they're getting their next cylinder of helium.

[Zachary Crockett]

When supply is low, helium prices tend to be much higher. But many of the bigger customers can't change their buying habits when the price of helium goes up or down. That's because in many industries there is no substitute for helium.

[Beau Sears]

MRI machines cannot work without helium. Space launches, rocket launches, right? You need something that will not react with those propellants, otherwise those rocket engine storage just collapses like a coke can. You must have helium.

[Zachary Crockett]

Luckily, Helium Shortage 4.0 seems to be over now and prices have come back down a bit. But demand for helium is only growing, which is why there's money to be made in hunting for new sources.

[Beau Sears]

In order to fill the void, we need to find more molecules. And the only way to do that is to explore for it. And that's what we're doing.

[Zachary Crockett]

His company, Helix Exploration, is one of around 60 firms actively searching for new helium deposits.

[Beau Sears]

Helium exploration is a very risky endeavor. We are traditional wildcatters. We are looking for stuff that we're not sure is there, but we have a pretty good idea it is. All that low hanging fruit is pretty much gone. Now we have to fill in the gaps of where we think helium should exist. And that takes various components of geological expertise. For instance, is it an area that has adequate uranium and thorium in the basement rock? Does it have adequate faults and fissures? Does it have a trap? Does it have reservoir quality? All of these things are important in the pursuit of helium.

[Zachary Crockett]

This exploration may help solve supply issues. In the short term, but it doesn't quell potential problems in the distant future. At one point or another, all helium that's mined from the earth and used commercially escapes to the atmosphere and goes into outer space, where it's unrecoverable. That concerns Sophia Hayes, the chemistry professor at Washington University.

[Sophia Hayes]

There have been different estimates that at the rate of use, we may run out of helium one day. I think that that's quite a real worry for the following reason. Because it has no substitute, and because every atom of helium can escape the earth. Every time we let it go, we still have to recreate that helium one atom at a time through radioactive decay, which is a natural process. We are using it up faster than it's being replenished. And so, by definition, that's an unsustainable situation.

[Zachary Crockett]

Scientists are working on recapture systems that can trap and recycle helium in certain applications. And in recent years, manufacturers have also developed much more efficient MRI machines. They use just 7 liters of helium per machine, compared to the 1500 liters used by older machines. But Hayes says there's another way we can all make a small difference.

[Sophia Hayes]

Balloons should be a luxury item rather than a common item. It's not that I'd like people to stop having balloons, because one of the great things about those balloons is it gets people to care. If you looked at that balloon and realized how incredibly magical it is to be able to hold that in your hand and to know that when you let that go, that gas is going out into outer space, never to be seen on Earth again, well, that's a pretty amazing thing.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. This episode was produced by me and Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston. We had help from Daniel Moritz Rabson.

[Phil Kornbluth]

Helium's not usually like, big cocktail party conversation, right? You say, well, I'm a consultant in the helium business. And they crack a joke about Donald Duck voice, and that's usually the end of it.

[Sophia Hayes]

The Freakonomics radio network. The hidden side of everything.

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