The Great Helium Shortage of 2022: What Can I Do to Keep My Lab Running?

 The Great Helium Shortage of 2022: What Can I Do to Keep My Lab Running?

by Nicole M. Lock

“Where is my helium tank? I thought we had a few coming in this week.” This was a colleague of mine in April when he was at 500psi left on his helium tank before starting a project. 

While we should have all expected this to happen at some point, I don’t know that most operators were prepared for this helium rationing to come on so swiftly. Like many out there, manufacturers are also being hit with a ‘force majeure’ from gas suppliers unable to meet supply requests. Let’s discuss how to potentially keep the lab going. This is going to be broken into two main parts; first we are going to go over those that cannot switch to an alternative gas and the second will be pointers on how to switch over to an alternative gas.

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