For a century, the U.S. Government-owned the largest helium reserve in the country, but the biggest exporters now are in Russia, Qatar and Tanzania. With this new discovery, Minnesota could be joining that list.

“A dream. It’s perfect”: Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America::For a century, the U.S. Government-owned the largest helium reserve in the country, but the biggest exporters now are in Russia, Qatar and Tanzania. With this new discovery, Minnesota could be joining that list.

  • ColeSlothEnglish
    357·
    9 months ago

    Balloon helium is 3% helium. So every 33 balloons is one Balloon worth of pure helium. No helium starts off pure. It all gets concentrated/separated to get that way. “Balloon grade” helium can be concentrated just fine and considering that thousands of those balloons are filled every day, it is a lot of wasted helium.

    *I had my percentage swapped, it seems. Balloon helium is 97% helium.

    • skillissuerEnglish
      151·
      9 months ago

      balloon helium has some air in it, it’s still 90%+ helium, probably

        • skillissuerEnglish
          4·
          9 months ago

          depends on manufacturer, some state it’s just 50%

          • ColeSlothEnglish
            3·
            9 months ago

            One of the things I read said it has to be at least 93% to make balloons float.

            • skillissuerEnglish
              9·
              9 months ago

              i’ve took time to actually look up various manufacturers’ datasheets and it’s: range 50-99%, 95%, 97%, range 95-100%, 99%, unspecified or just data for pure helium. at this point i’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as “balloon gas manufacturer”, everyone buys 4N+ cryogenic helium and balloon gas consists of odds and ends that come from flushing piping and empty bottles with better stuff

            • skillissuerEnglish
              3·
              9 months ago

              how much do you need to float, if it’s helium then 1L lifts about 1g of mass, if it’s 50% helium 50% air it lifts 0.5g per liter, then it depends on how heavy balloon is in relation to its volume

              • kalkulat@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                9 months ago

                The balloon + helium has to be lighter than the (couple of liters of) air it displaces.

                He Density (at STP) 0.1786 g/L

                The density of air at sea level is about 1.2 g/L

                Another interesting factoid about rare elements: Very little nickel is found in the Earth’s crust. Most nickel has arrived on Earth from meteors. Usually mixed with iron, which held-back the arrival of the iron-age.

    • olympicyes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      131·
      9 months ago

      Last time I bought what I thought was a pure balloon of He, I’m pretty sure it had gotten cut with fentanyl.