Canadian helium company's sale to "major" space launch company

[Lord Rory Gin]

The major space launch company is most likely SpaceX whose founder Elon Musk has family roots back in Saskatchewan. [His great grandmother being Canada's first chiropractor, and part of the local Temperance Movement and thus a foe of my grandfather]. What other kind of company would be able to consume 8-10 million cubic feet per day of industrial helium???
https://leaderpost.com/business/sask-helium-company-strikes-deal-with-space-launch-company

While Davidson was unable to provide the name of the space company due to confidentiality clauses in the agreement, he expects initial deliveries will begin in 2023.
He said the company will take about 40 to 50 per cent of Royal’s production, which is about 20 million cubic feet of gas per day. “It’s a small amount for them; they consume far more than this, but it’s a substantial sales contract for us,” Davidson said. “Now job No. 1 is done, the next step will be to sell the remaining volumes.”
Royal Helium has a number of well sites in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. The sites in Alberta are near Steveville and the ones in Saskatchewan are close to Climax. The Alberta wells will send the gas to a processing facility in Steveville and the Saskatchewan sites will go to a Climax facility. Both facilities will soon be under construction, Davidson said. Alberta’s facility will process 15 million cubic feet of gas per day while Saskatchewan’s will process five million cubic feet per day.

 

[Funkworks]

Interesting

https://royalheliumltd.com/news/roy...ly-agreement-with-major-space-launch-company/
Edit:
"Because Royal’s helium reservoirs are carried primarily with nitrogen, it’s considered less carbon intensive than other jurisdictions that rely on natural gas production. As a result, Davidson said helium extracted from wells in Saskatchewan and Alberta can be up to 90 per cent less carbon intensive than others."

 

[Hobie1dog]

They extract these gases from below ground and then it all gets put out into the atmosphere, the numbers are staggering

 

[Funkworks]

They extract these gases from below ground and then it all gets put out into the atmosphere, the numbers are staggering

As far as I know, helium just goes to space. Probably gets knocked out of earth's gravity by cosmic rays and wanders off to never land.

 

[SDramstad]

With starship SpaceX is moving away from helium. May be Blue origin

 

[Lord Rory Gin]

With starship SpaceX is moving away from helium. May be Blue origin

Helium is typically used to purge fuel from rockets when defueling so it could be any of three companies (NASA, Blue Origin, or SpaceX). I suggested SpaceX because of Musk's ties to the province and because of the sheer volume of helium required. Industrial helium is getting fairly scarce as the US is using up its strategic reserve in Texas.

 

[Antares JS]

Helium is typically used to purge fuel from rockets when defueling so it could be any of three companies (NASA, Blue Origin, or SpaceX). I suggested SpaceX because of Musk's ties to the province and because of the sheer volume of helium required.

Helium is also used as ullage gas for LOX tanks. More-common nitrogen will just dissolve in the oxygen while helium will not.

 

[Lord Rory Gin]

Helium is typically used to purge fuel from rockets when defueling so it could be any of three companies (NASA, Blue Origin, or SpaceX). I suggested SpaceX because of Musk's ties to the province and because of the sheer volume of helium required. Industrial helium is getting fairly scarce as the US is using up its strategic reserve in Texas.

Well, its definitely NOT NASA because they have a habit of indicating who their contracts are with: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awards-contract-for-acquisition-of-gaseous-liquid-helium

NASA has selected three companies to supply 1.4 million liters of liquid helium and 87.7 million standard cubic feet of gaseous helium for use at facilities across the agency. The indefinite delivery requirements contract includes multiple firm-fixed price delivery orders. Awardees include:

• Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Messer LLC of Bridgewater, New Jersey
• Linde Inc. of Danbury, Connecticut

 

[Antares JS]

Well, its definitely NOT NASA because they have a habit of indicating who their contracts are with: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awards-contract-for-acquisition-of-gaseous-liquid-helium

NASA has selected three companies to supply 1.4 million liters of liquid helium and 87.7 million standard cubic feet of gaseous helium for use at facilities across the agency. The indefinite delivery requirements contract includes multiple firm-fixed price delivery orders. Awardees include:

• Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Messer LLC of Bridgewater, New Jersey
• Linde Inc. of Danbury, Connecticut

NASA is probably also required to buy from US suppliers.

 

[manixFan]

With starship SpaceX is moving away from helium. May be Blue origin

Hmm, they still have a lot of Falcon 9's to fly which use a lot of helium.


Tony

 

[manixFan]

With starship SpaceX is moving away from helium. May be Blue origin

For those interested, Starship uses 'autogenous pressurization' (self pressurization from on board fuel basically), a good discussion can be found here:



and a video:



The first link is Reddit (you have to click on the thread title to get the link), so take everything with a grain of salt, but it's a good starter thread. I thought the video was very good.


Tony