The ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is causing natural gas shortages, including helium shortages.
One-third of the Earth’s helium is produced in the Middle East, and Columbia is starting to see local impacts of the conflict as these shortages affect research. Airgas, a local supplier of industrial, medical and specialty gases, has restricted the amount that it can deliver by as much as 50% due to supply shortages, according to an email from the company.
“Airgas regrets to inform you that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, QatarEnergy’s complete suspension of its LNG and Helium production, and other associated supply chain issues have impacted the supply of Product,” Airgas wrote in an email to University of Missouri officials on March 17.
Helium is used in research and health care to cool technology with powerful magnets, including MRI machines.
Michael Greenlief, an associate professor of chemistry at Mizzou, said the helium shortage affects the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Core facility.
“There’s a number of research cores on campus, and each one of the cores has specialized instruments, and the NMR facility, or the NMR core is one of them,” Greenlief said.
Helium is used to keep the magnetic field at a constant -269 degrees Celsius, Greenlief said. For research, the magnetic field must be permanent, he said.
Greenlief’s team is conserving helium by being more careful when transferring the gas and using all the helium they receive, he said. Greenlief plans to propose a helium capture, recovery and recycling system to help with issues like this in the future.
MU Health Care posted on Facebook that it was not affected by the shortage. While MRI machines use helium, the helium is recirculated and isn’t consumed as part of the operation of the machine, according to the post.
According to the post, “MRI services are operating normally,” and patients should not be concerned.
“Additional helium is only needed in rare maintenance situations, or an uncommon event called a ‘quench,’ where the magnet briefly loses its superconducting state,” according to the MU Health Care post. MU Health Care is working with vendors, and said supplies are expected to meet current needs.
