Thread: Airship

Originally Posted by stallie

Won't there be a problem with a business model that uses helium? We're running out of it. Fast.

Latest figures I could find show reserves* of about fifty years at current rates of production. That hardly agrees with us running out fast. Airships are unlikely to ever represent more than a tiny proportion of use - most is used for cooling superconducting magnets, welding, and other industrial processes. The price is currently depressed by the USA selling off its helium reserves by 2015 (the reserves were set up in the 1930s when military applications of airships were considered vital. The sell-off suggests they no longer think this.)

John

*Reserves do not represent "all that there is", but simply all that is proven to be available for production at current prices. With this level of reserves, there is no incentive to develop any other sources, although it should be pointed out that almost all helium production is a byproduct of natural gas production, about 80% in a few fields in the USA, 10% in Algeria.

Originally Posted by stallie

...... What's in the earth already is what we have left, ....

While this is certainly correct, it needs to be pointed out that "reserves" is not the same number as "what is in the earth already". And with fifty years reserves, nobody is going to spend any money looking for more reserves. (Actually, it is a reasonable guess that there are quite a few other producing gas fields with significant proportions of helium in their production, but whose owners are not only not going to invest in equipment to separate helium, since they will never recoup the expenditure, but are not going to draw attention of their customers to the fact that some of the gas they are buying is non-inflammable!)

John