<10% of natural gas plants recover helium. All of them extract it. The remaining >90% vent it into the atmosphere. This is an engineering / money problem, not a physics problem.

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jandrese 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It becomes a larger problem as the world moves away from fossil fuels like natural gas.

I'm not a chemist but are there really no alternatives? Running fusion plants to make helium seems very unlikely to become cost effective, but it would be quite the sci-fi future if we filled party balloons by bombarding hydrogen with free protons.

I guess there aren't any easy molecules to break apart to get helium either since its a noble gas. No hydrolyses type solutions because there aren't any molecules that incorporate helium. I guess radioactive decay, but even that is ultimately limited over long enough timescales.

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triceratops 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> it would be quite the sci-fi future if we filled party balloons by bombarding hydrogen

How dangerous are party balloons filled with hydrogen? Not a whole balloon arch obviously.

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jandrese 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I had a science teacher that did this in class, then taped a match on the end of a yardstick and held it under the balloon. They made quite a bang. I wouldn't want to be right next to it when it went off.

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triceratops 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah I've seen that demonstration in school too. But if the teacher was willing to do it in school, with kids, how dangerous was it really?

	▲	Neywiny an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Along with the other commenter, I'll add that a classroom is usually a lot bigger than a home dining room or other domestic party locations. That size also helps things dissipate instead of reflect. Not sure by how much but I'm sure it does something.
	▲	cyberax an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You can get permanent hearing damage from that demonstration if you stand right next to that balloon.

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cubefox 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

> It becomes a larger problem as the world moves away from fossil fuels like natural gas.

I actually remember a similar problem from some compound that was mainly formed as a byproduct of some old Canadian nuclear reactor design. As the tech gets phased out, the material is no longer available in significant quantities, with consequences for a projects that need it (like Iter).

Some things can be cheap if they are produced as a byproduct, but very expensive if they have to be obtained directly.

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kakacik 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

As usual - 'there is scarcity of XYZ' -> price it accordingly, and markets will align quickly. Dont expecr private companies to have long term thinking, thats not how bonuses for those steering the wheel are set up.