Question

Name the main commercial source of Helium?

Answer 1

The main commercial source of Helium:

• Helium is known as a noble gas that is get produced underground with the help of the radioactive decay of heavy elements.
• The main commercial source of helium is known as natural gas, which contains an average of $0.4\%$ Helium.
• The first step in extracting helium from natural gas is pretreatment, where the gas is pressurized to approximately $54\mathrm{atm}$of pressure, which then flows through a scrubber where it is subjected to a spray of monoethanolamine which is used to absorb the carbon dioxide.
• In the next step, heavy hydrocarbons are collected on the activated carbon bed.
• The next step is to extract the helium gas from the natural gas, which can be achieved through a cryogenic piping system.
• In this, the natural gas is pressurized and then passed through a sieve during which, Helium is separated from natural gas so that only crude Helium remains.

Hence, the name of the main commercial source of Helium is natural gas.