Helium Recovery System

Quantum Technology Helium Recovery System

Liquid Helium is used in our NMR magnets to keep them cool and maintain a strong magnetic field.  However, Helium is entirely a nonrenewable byproduct from certain mining operations and as it boils off from the magnets, it quickly escapes and out of the Earth’s atmosphere.  With a global helium shortage at a high, we wanted to be able to reduce our environmental impact. 

On May 13th, 2021, Quantum Technology Corp. (Thanks Joey Heider!) completed the installation of their All-Metal Helium Recovery and Liquification System.  The closed-loop can continuously recover the boil-off gas from the NMR magnets and the fully piped configuration reduces the sources of contamination allowing for high purity ( > 99.99%) liquid helium.  The automatic recovery compressor can distribute the helium gas to storage or the liquefier when needed.  This recovery system will reduce our cryogen consumption of our 4 NMR magnets in Brown 353A by 95-99% per year, lowering our yearly maintenance costs.

The acquisition of the helium recovery system would not be possible without the NIH supplemental funding (R01GM117118) granted to Prof. Nate Traaseth.

How the Recovery System Works

The helium recovery system and our NMR magnets are in a fully closed-loop to recover all boil-off gas at all times. As the helium boils off from the NMR Magnets, the gas gets collected by the Recovery Compressor which then can direct the compressed gas to either the Storage Tanks or to the Liquefier, depending on the recovery rate.  Prior going to the Liquefier, the gas passes through a Purifier which uses a cold head to condense impurities such as oxygen and water from the helium gas. The Liquefier then refrigerates the helium gas to condense it and produce clean, pure liquid helium. Once the liquefier is full, we can transfer the recovered liquid helium back into the NMR Magnets.