re: There is a world wide helium shortage and we may need to ban party balloons

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With all the chemicals out there and gas formulations no one has come up with an inexpensive nonflammable, nontoxic, eco friendly inert gas to use in balloons.

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This thread made me curious about this, and man, there is nothing promising:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifting_gas

Then I saw this:

Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve: Executive Summary

This is kind of shocking to me, selling off strategic reserves, and not even at market prices.

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the committee finds that selling off the helium reserve, as required by the 1996 Act, has adversely affected critical users of helium and is not in the best interest of U.S. taxpayers or the country.

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How will doctors run up a big bill if they can’t do a bunch of expensive tests? They might actually have to look at your back like a chiropractor does

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Yea they ran up a big bill on my cousin who has fibromyalgia. He didn’t feel better until he got his back straighten by a chiropractor

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As the reason

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Most helium comes from natural gas. Some natural gas has low (1 percent) of helium. Usually they will build a lHe liquifer at a natural gas pumping station. The natural gas has to have the water removed in a molecular sieve bed. The CO2 has to be also removed in the amine unit. If not they will freeze and plug the heat exchanger. The gas then goes through exchanger and is cooled down. The natural gas (methane) will liquify at -260 then it needs to get to -320 to remove small amounts of nitrogen. The helium will stay a gas. Then it will go through the 80 k absorbers to remove traces of neon. At this point the helium can be sent to Amarillo for storage or to the liquifer where it is cooled to 4K -452. The helium is cooled using expanders and expansion engine. Liquid is then sent to storage tank or trailer. Liquid helium is sent through vacuum jacketed lines to trailer or storage. As trailer is being filled it will boil of some. Another hose is connected to trailer to capture all vapors. Truck and trailer cannot weigh more then 80000 lbs. Liquid helium weighs s one pound per gallon. Trailer is loaded on scale.

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So now my balloon in a balloon will cost me $50.

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It’s funny you say this. Just a few weeks ago, I walked up at the tail end of a lady in Brookshires (a supermarket) throwing a fit because the had a few balloons blown up and they wanted $25. She refused to pay it and they couldn’t make her. She left angrily, and the were stuck with a few big gold number balloons. It’s not like they could put the gas back in the bottle.

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She left angrily, and the were stuck with a few big gold number balloons. It’s not like they could put the gas back in the bottle.

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Oh, I'd throw darts at this.

Are you in the industry?