Does Global IT Growth Depend On Helium?

A perplexing headline recently caught my eye. It read something like: “Lack of Access to Helium Gas Might Affect Semi-Conductor Supply”. I wondered how the gas used to fill party balloons could have the potential to impact negatively on the production speed of the growing data centers in our country. If like me, you have not had many thoughts about helium beyond a vague recollection of it being the second element on the Periodic Table and its use in blimps and hot air balloons, then welcome to this mini wonderland where we take a trip down the helium gas rabbit hole. Let us understand why its making headlines, and what that means for the African continent.

Here are a few “fun facts” about Helium:
1. Helium is produced as boil-off-gas (BOG), a by-product of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production process.
2. On the continent of Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Mozambique, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Congo, and South Africa all have LNG plants at various stages and levels of production.
3. Of the LNG producers in Africa, only one (Renergen in South Africa) also produces Helium.
4. This rare, non-toxic gas has uses in electronics, the medical profession, and aerospace.
5. Uncaptured Helium is lost from the production process and cannot be re-claimed.
6. Helium gas is THE ONLY ELEMENT that escapes the Earth’s atmosphere(meaning that once lost to us earthlings, can only be captured in a galaxy far, far away).

Helium has uses in the medical industry, aerospace, and others. We will however, concentrate on the IT industry where it is used in the production of semi-conductor chips, fiber optic cables. The reason for its usefulness is that it is chemically inert, meaning that it does not react with other chemicals in its vicinity. It has the lowest known boiling point, the highest thermal conductivity, and provides a the perfect insulation and cooling environment for high-precision electronics.

Due to Helium gas’ ability to act as an insulator against electrical currents, it is used in the development of semi-conductor chips. These tiny components require a controlled environment to maintain the integrity of their switches during their intricate design process. Switches allow the existence of on and off states by either allowing electricity to pass through them or not. This on and off state, also known as binary aka zeros’s and ones, or Yes and No – is the basis of modern day computing.

It is in light of these unique factors, combined with the current global crises that I wonder whether gas producers on the African continent have considered leaving less money on the table by starting to capture Helium gas during their LNG extraction process. We are after all, at the edge of an era when we need more computing power while facing an increased demand for data storage, thanks to the current AI revolution.

At present, this resource is being lost to the environment while Africa sits in a unique geographic position between the east and west where it is possible to supply the commodity to potential markets in a way that does not engage with the currently restricted trading routes.

The next question is, what would it take for existing plants to upgrade their infrastructure to enable Helium gas capture to take place? I do believe this is a question for another day. However, with the current opportunity cost of the downtime sitting between $1 million and $3.8 million per hour (https://specgasinc.com/feeds/blog/helium-semiconductor-manufacturing), it is a question that can not be ignored. If we are to make some of the future trends written about in Chapter 10 of “Managing IT Suppliers : A Practical Guide To Vendor Management (https://www.takealot.com/managing-it-suppliers/PLID99345895)” a reality, LNG gas producers should be mobilizing to take advantage of the opportunity that lies before them.