During China’s two sessions, strengthening and increasing helium production was put on the agenda
Apr 01, 2024
In the industrial field, helium is known as the "golden gas" and "gas chip" and is widely used in high-tech fields such as liquid fuel rockets, manned deep diving, semiconductor manufacturing, nuclear magnetic resonance, and modern precision analytical instruments. The helium industry is a resource-based strategic industry that supports and affects the development of new industrialization. How to benchmark and implement new quality productivity requirements, promote the innovative development of the helium industry and improve the quality and efficiency of the helium industry has entered the vision of China's Two Sessions, arousing the attention and thinking of delegates.
Helium is a strategic resource. First, the resource is scarce. my country is a helium-poor country. Helium reserves only account for 2% of the global total, but demand accounts for 11% of the global total. Second, it is widely used. Helium is widely used in the national defense industry and high-tech fields such as liquid fuel rockets, spacecrafts, supersonic aircraft, manned deep dives, semiconductor manufacturing, quantum computers, nuclear magnetic resonance, and modern precision analytical instruments. It is known as "Gas Chip".
In fact, helium is not mysterious at all. It is often active in our lives. Helium is used in balloons that children love to play with, welding on construction sites, medical ultrasound and nuclear magnetic resonance, and optical fibers for communication. Helium can be used to fill light bulbs and neon tubes. It is also an ideal gas for balloons and airships. It can also be mixed with oxygen and used as a breathing gas for divers. Helium purification technology is highly demanding and difficult.
Technological innovation enhances independent controllability of industrial chain
To develop new productive forces according to local conditions, we must not only seize the commanding heights of the new technological revolution and open up new development tracks, but also use technological innovation to transform and inject new vitality into traditional industries, effectively promote the iterative upgrading of productivity, and "seize the new" and "renovate the old" "We should all work in the same direction.
In recent years, Gansu has vigorously developed a domestic, independent and controllable helium industry and related technologies, accelerated the construction of the helium industry system and enhanced the independent and controllable capabilities of the industrial chain. This is one of the ways to develop new productivity.
How difficult is 99.9999%? It is very difficult to purify helium products to 99.9999%. The first step is to pass the impurity control level, which means that the total amount of impurities must be controlled to less than one part per million, which is equivalent to the total amount of impurities in a standard football field not exceeding the size of a coin. The focus is on solving the problem of efficient purification of impurities such as nitrogen and hydrogen in the neon-helium mixed gas. At the same time, special technical treatment of product transportation pipelines and product packaging is required to avoid secondary pollution. The second step is to pass the separation barrier between neon and helium, and use the boiling point difference between neon and helium to overcome a series of technical problems such as establishing an ultra-low temperature working environment and ultra-low temperature efficient adsorption to achieve high-efficiency separation of neon and helium. While producing helium, the purity of neon gas must also be improved. Purified to 99.9999%. This technical solution has completely independent intellectual property rights and has reached the international advanced level.
Our independently developed room-temperature membrane helium extraction technology has made it feasible to extract low-grade helium-containing natural gas resources that previously had no development value. This technology has opened up a new helium extraction model that is suitable for the actual natural gas resources in our country and enhanced our country's Helium self-sufficiency. In the future, we will continue to invest in research and development and apply this technology to all helium-containing gases, so as to make every mention possible.
