MANAGING YOUR LAB DURING THE HELIUM CRISIS
As supply lines experience further delays and disruptions, lab managers and industry professionals may need to consider alternative options for their lab’s helium supply.
Thanks to a combination of various factors, research labs around the world are struggling amidst another episode of helium shortage. With the US Bureau of Land Manage- ment (BLM) down for what seems likely to be several months, reduced production from Qatar, and further delays in the ramp-up of the Amur production facility in Russia (an estimated loss of 49 million cubic meters of helium per year), no real relief seems to be in sight for the short term. The cost of liquid helium has more than doubled in the last two years, going from $930 to $2000 for a 100-liter dewar. Setting this in the context of a research laboratory, the helium shortage means reduced usage of instruments such as scanning tunnel- ing microscopes, which generally require 100 liters of liquid helium per week, leading to delayed experiments and research. Rising conflict in Eastern Europe along- side possible sanctions in the future have further deepened the crisis with major supply chain disruptions of helium across the global market in what is the fourth helium shortage in the last 20 years, or Helium 4.0.
CARRIER GAS ALTERNATIVES TO HELIUM
Helium is widely used as a carrier gas for gas chromatography (GC) experiments. Currently, lab managers and industry professionals have sought alternatives that are sustainable and offer equal, if not better, results. Hydrogen and nitrogen are two such carrier gases. Long considered the superior carrier gas for GC, hydrogen’s high diffusivity provides for faster linear velocities and shorter analyses while maintaining a simi- lar separation efficiency as helium. Nitrogen is another carrier gas that provides the best possible separation efficiency at the lowest velocities, is highly abundant and easy to produce, but incurs high separation times. So why the delay?
PEAK SCIENTIFIC’S GAS GENERATORS
The key concern involving carrier gases is lab safety, especially involving the use of gas cylinders. Enter PEAK Scientific. PEAK’s range of gas generators is designed with GC in mind and offers a safe and practical means to supply hydrogen and nitrogen gas to a lab.
PEAK’s Precision Hydrogen generator can provide standard grade purity suitable for flame ionization detectors. Precision Hydrogen Trace generators are ideal for carrier gas, ensuring the lowest baseline and highest precision in experimental results. Similarly, PEAK’s Precision Nitrogen generator is ideal for the lab GC’s make up gas and is equipped to supply multiple detectors.
Organized in a stackable and modular design, the Precision range can be equipped with a Precision Zero Air generator to provide flame support gas without altering the overall footprint of the stack. For labs that lack compressed air solutions, the Precision stack also comes with a Precision Air Compressor ensuring that the lab’s GC needs are met in one stackable solution.
MOVING FROM HELIUM TO HYDROGEN
In converting from helium to hydrogen, there is the additional consideration for GC users to redevelop and revalidate GC methods. Prominent instrument manufacturers, such as Markes and Agilent, have shifted to designing instruments that can utilize hydrogen and nitrogen as carrier gases rather than solely rely on helium. This trend follows on the heels of recommendations toward alternative carrier gases that may allow research labs to continue their experiments without disruption. This shift works well in the case of PEAK’s Precision range which is well-equipped to supply hydrogen and nitrogen carrier gases, making the switch easier and less time-consuming. In this manner, PEAK’s Precision range provides a feasible way for labs to become self- sufficient and adapt to current shortages in helium.
