How Pitt beat the helium shortage (as balloons deflated)
In 2014, in the midst of a multiyear spike in helium prices, the University of Pittsburgh poured millions of dollars into building a high-tech machine aimed at recovering the helium that its researchers used.
Prices stabilized soon after, and a substantial return on its investment seemed a far-off possibility. But now, as another shortage threatens not only the availability of birthday balloons but also the viability of basic science research, Pitt’s machine — one of the most efficient of its kind in the world — is paying dividends.
“It’s definitely making it affordable for everyone to do their research,” said Peter Chambers, who oversees science facilities at the university.
Some local retailers have not been so lucky. Multiple Giant Eagle stores are not offering helium balloons due to the shortage, many local Dollar Tree stores have exhausted supplies or imposed quotas on sales, and one Strip District store has adjusted its growth projections.
“The shortage has seemingly put a hard cap on how much we can expect our new business to grow in the coming months and years,” Joseph Wasko, vice president of the party supply store Schorin Company, wrote in an emailed statement.
Crude helium prices sold at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s 2019 auction clocked in at $279.95 per million standard cubic feet, an increase of roughly 135% from the year prior.
While balloons are perhaps the most widely known use of helium, the element has a variety of other applications, including being used to maintain low-operating temperatures of medical devices such as MRI scanners. Researchers at Pittsburgh-area universities also use the gas in nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers — machines that help with analysis of small molecules.
Damodaran K. Achary, a chemistry professor at Pitt, said the magnets contained in each spectrometer require an input of between 50 and 150 liters of liquid helium on multiple occasions each year. If the helium is not replenished in time, he estimates a replacement magnet could cost upward of $50,000.
Even after the university connected its helium recovery machine to the chemistry department’s labs earlier this year, the nationwide shortage remains in the back of researchers’ minds, Mr. Achary said.
Joseph Gibbons, a principal at Wilson Architects who helped design Pitt’s recovery system, said the volatility of helium prices — coupled with a steady rise in prices over time — can disproportionately impact those who aren’t backed up by the infrastructure of a large university.
“We see a lot of young lab startups who have to make hard decisions on whether to stop paying employees or stop paying for
helium,” Mr. Gibbons said.
Giant Eagle spokesperson Dick Roberts wrote in an email that some of the O’Hara-based grocer’s stores are not selling helium-filled balloons — which normally sell for $3.99 — due to the “ongoing nationwide” shortage.
“We are working very closely with our helium supply partner in an effort to secure as much helium as possible to limit customer impact,” Mr. Roberts wrote.
Even though helium is the universe’s second-most abundant element, the gas has long been hard to come by, partly due to sky-high storage costs. The element — which comes in both liquid and gaseous form — is a byproduct of natural gas production.
Only a handful of production facilities exist, increasing the risk that political maneuvering halfway around the globe — such as a recent Saudi Arabian embargo of Qatar, which holds close to a third of the world’s helium supply — can threaten the use of balloons at birthday parties in the United States.
Other causes of the current shortage — which has lasted over a year — include increased worldwide demand, maintenance issues in the United States and the dwindling supply of the National Helium Reserve, a facility in Amarillo, Texas, that the government once closely protected for its strategic value in the space race but has since privatized.
Meanwhile, U.S. consumers continue to purchase hundreds of millions of balloons — not all helium-filled — each year, despite increasing scrutiny of their environmental impact.
The current helium shortage is not the first time local businesses have faced difficulties meeting consumer demand. In 2012, suppliers in the region cut back on shipments to party balloon sellers to ensure that medical clients could continue operating their machines.
But the extended length of the current shortage is unique, said David Weiss, founder of Monroevillebased Airheads Balloon Art, who noted that “hiccups” in the supply of helium “come and go” regularly.
Mr. Weiss said he has been forced to raise prices and restrict helium tank rentals, but he has nonetheless managed to fulfill all consumer demand.
“I haven’t had to tell a customer ‘no,’” he said.
In May, Party City cited the ongoing shortage as a contributing factor in its decision to close 45 of its roughly 900 stores nationwide. The East Hanover, N.J.-based company recently signed a new contract for helium that will “substantially eliminate” the ongoing shortfall its stores are facing, according to its chief executive. James M. Harrison.
Mr. Chambers, the Pitt facilities director, said the university’s recovery system has decreased its helium usage by over 60%.
Yet he still remains concerned about availability, especially after an ominous call from a supplier recently warning of a “large shortage” coming in July.
“And I do hope that we will be able to weather some of these storms because I don’t think it’s gonna get better for a while,” he said.