I live near a business that has tank farms and piping for pressurized gases. They provide a lot of oxygen for health care use. If they can “manufacture” a gas, why can’t they make more helium?
In: 5
You can’t just “make” helium. In essence, you have to “mine” it.
Ironically, helium is the second-most abundant element in the universe but it is extremely rare on earth. Since it’s so light, it just floats above the air and into space, where it’s lost forever. Almost all of the helium available to us is underground in natural gas deposits, and they are a finite resource.
Hydrogen has a lot of the same problems, but unlike helium it readily bonds with other elements (like oxygen, to make water) and can be separated out using chemical processes. Helium, on the other hand, is almost totally inert and does not form compounds.
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