Helium

Helium is usually produced as a byproduct of natural gas processing. When the natural gas contains more than about 0.4% helium by volume, a cryogenic distillation method is often used in order to recover the helium content. Once the helium has been separated from the natural gas, it undergoes further refining to bring it to 99.99+ % purity for commercial use.

Medical Use

• Helium is the commonly used carrier gas in gas chromatography. Under liquid state, at -269 °C, helium is the cooling fluid for the MRI, NMR or EPR magnets.

Industrial Use

• Balloon inflation, leak detection, because the boiling point of helium is close (-269 °C or -452 °C) to the absolute zero (-273 °C).
• It is also used for cooling of superconducting magnets, in helium neon lasers, as a component of the special mixtures used in CO2 lasers, blanket gas to exclude air from certain fabrication processes, and as a heat transfer material.