Operational Costs of He3 Separation Using the Superfluidity of He4

Abstract

Helium is the second most abundant element in the Universe after hydrogen. Considerable resources of helium-3 isotope (He3) are located mostly outside the Earth. He3 is very important for science and industry, especially for airport neutron detectors, lung tomography and helium dilution refrigerators. Besides, global warming is forcing the industry and governments to search for alternative energy sources, and He3 has the potential to be used as fuel in future nuclear fusion power plants. Unfortunately, the price of gaseous He3 has recently increased from $200 per liter to over $2750. The expected further increase in price and demands led us to present an analysis of the economic profitability for He3 separation process, which utilizes the properties of superfluid helium. This paper shows the arguments supporting the idea that extraction from natural sources is the only economically viable way of obtaining He3 isotope nowadays. The method could be relatively easily implemented into the production cycles of the low temperature natural gas purification plant.

Feasibility Study of Low Mass and Low Energy Consumption Drilling Devices for Future Space (Mining Surveying) Missions

“…For billions of years, the solar wind carried helium onto the lunar surface, which also contained the isotope 3 He. The average [38] concentration of 3 He in the lunar regolith does not exceed 20 ppb. This means that with a 3 He concentration of 20 ppb, 150 tons of regolith would have to be processed to obtain 1 g of 3 He.…”

“…Moreover, the [37] addition of 1% He-3 nuclei to the first generation fusion fuels increases the ion energy 10 times, which may be important for improving the economics of the first fusion reactors. It is [38] documented that some volcanoes can emit helium-containing gases with concentrations of 3 He ranging from 14 to 30 ppm. A similar concentration occurs in young basalt rocks.…”

“…Exploitation of 3 He from the air, as shown by research conducted in the 1940s and 1950s, is economically unprofitable. He 3 may [38] also be acquired from helium extracted from natural gas. In this case, the separation process must be carried out at very low temperatures, usually below 2.18 K. World helium production in 2014 was around 20,000 tonnes per year with the average He 3 concentration of 0.2 ppm-this could have resulted in around 2 kg He 3 per year.…”

Moon-Based Ground Penetrating Radar Derivation of the Helium-3 Reservoir in the Regolith at the Chang'E-3 Landing Site

“…Taking the production of 2 tons of the helium-3 per year as an example, the production cost per gram of the helium-3 is estimated to be $3,850/g to $10,250/g [54]. However, the current commercial cost of He-3 exceeds $20,625/g (price in 2020) [55]. It is worth noting that the lunar helium-3 mining system proposed by Kleinschneider et al [54] does not completely cover all possible input costs, and the cost proposed in their paper does not consider currency inflation after a few decades later.…”

“…592 However, it is worth noting that the use of helium-3 as a fuel 593 for fusion is much more energy required than that of D+T In addition, commercial mining activities can also be con- between Earth and the Moon is still very expensive. For example, NASA estimates that the cost price of returning one kilogram of material from the lunar surface is between $10,000 and $28,000 [55]. In addition, the complete scheme and cost budget of the lunar helium-3 mining system needs to be further improved.…”