alternative to Helium?

[dannieh42]

Since Helium is becoming more rare and more expensive every year has anyone heard of work being done to find an alternative? Experimentation of that sort is something that I do not have the knowledge for, and would never even begin to attempt. I would think that someone somewhere was trying to find an inert gas that could be used in the place of helium. With all of the eco-nazis running loose today it is only a matter of time some one starts a "Save the Helium" group or something equally as stupid ;)

[stevemc1]

There a few different gases they use for an alternative, but I think He is cheapest.

[100days-a-year]

I've heard air mentioned as an alternative but I remain skeptical of such untried methods:thumps:

That is unless you routinely dive deeper than 200' then you'll just have to fork over the $$$

[HeadHunter]

Prices...according to my He distributor, have leveled off and in many cases have dropped. If you think you're being gouged, I'd call around.

[BigMako]

The problem is that He is a rare gas to start with and an alternative will be rarer and more expensive still. Won't say where in Ft Lauderdalel, but the last Tri-mix fill I got was a set of 120 steels and it was 110.00.

[Mulloway]

i remember there were some people were using hydrogen, i bet its a biatch to mix, wrong proportion and you end up with H2O. and its explosive too. He is 0.07sgd/L here, ave cost for a set of alu80's is about 120sgd.

[jknight8907]

i remember there were some people were using hydrogen, i bet its a biatch to mix, wrong proportion and you end up with H2O. and its explosive too. He is 0.07sgd/L here, ave cost for a set of alu80's is about 120sgd.

I'm pretty sure you're not going to make water just by dumping some hydrogen into a tank of oxygen.............but I'm no doctor.......:rolleyes:

[Flea Dog]

Sadly there is no alternative to He. If you check the periodic table of the elements you will get the answers to you question. Hydrogen is NOT explosive, but does oxidize rather quickly and readily releasing a lot of heat, remember the Hindenburg did not explode like a bomb, but it did burn very rapidly giving off a whole lot of heat. That would suck if it happened inside your tank, but would not be as bad as O2 and a hydrocarbon, (grease).

The next element that is a gas at room temp. is nitrogen... Well, that sucks. Next is oxygen, (self explanatory), fluorine (in small amounts is good for your teeth or a communist plot to take over the world, (Purity Of Essence)), in large amounts, well, deadly. Then comes neon a noble gas, great in a light, makes a pretty red color, it will not react with the body, but it is heavier, denser, (harder breathing) and would be more costly.

We are stuck sounding like a duck...

Better living through chemistry!! :thumps:


PS. He is the most abundant element in the Universe. Amazing it is so expensive.

[Teh Wicked]

im about to take the Helitrox class from Aquatic Obsessions, From my research I think the heaviest mix of He I can get is 22%. What do you think my fill price will be on Lp120's? I got a voucher for the course from the TBSC tournament this past weekend, i was already wanting to take it so I figure I might as well pick this up and save some moolah!

[8h8h]

Teh,

Just for reference, I just had two LP120's filled with 25/20 at AO for the KWO. Those two fills and a fifty dollar reel kicked the hell out of a hundred dollar bill. Of course LeAnne may not like you as much as she does me, so your price may vary. :D

[FredT]

Hydrogen is a reasonable alternative, but you need to be diving deep enough to get usable O2 pp to keep you alive out of a 0.5%, or less, O2 mix. Then there is the travel gas issues.

The stuff is used commercially, but only on surface supplied saturation dives where gas switching management is done at the surface.

[FredT]

I'm pretty sure you're not going to make water just by dumping some hydrogen into a tank of oxygen.............but I'm no doctor.......:rolleyes:

Actually doing what you suggest will make H2O, rather quickly and with considerable heat. There is a bit of art in making hydrox.

[Mike Edmonston]

The problem is that He is a rare gas to start with and an alternative will be rarer and more expensive still. Won't say where in Ft Lauderdalel, but the last Tri-mix fill I got was a set of 120 steels and it was 110.00.

HE is not a rare gas. It is the most abundant gas on the planet (along with Hydrogen). Unfortunately, it's so light that it gets lost in the upper atmosphere. Currently we are getting most of our HE from Natural gas (About 7%). There are delays with new plants opening up in china, therefore gas prices have increased. IIRC, Poland was a large supplier, but their plants are aging and cannot keep up with demand.

As far as using other gasses, we are pretty much shit out of luck due to our body and tissue chemistry. Heavier gasses become narcotic, and HydrOx is not something you would want to play around with in your garage.

I won't even start the discussion on "Baloon grade" vs "five 9's" for diving.

Keep the % of helium in your mix where your END is between 90' and 110' and fill prices are not that bad.

Happy Diving :thumps:

[Mobius1]

I'm pretty sure you're not going to make water just by dumping some hydrogen into a tank of oxygen.............but I'm no doctor.......:rolleyes:

heh more like a premixed oxy hydro bomb.bet the oxygen fore from tht could be beautiful aslong as you arent anywhere near that. i would hope that would be one hell of a through O2 cleaning

[Icelander]

Now please, more knowledgeable people CORRECT me if i am mistaken, but were there not some rather "explosive" results when divers back in the day would switch from mixes high in hydrogen to a deco mix high in o2 during their dives? And they prevented that be doing I suppose something similar to an "air break" before switching to a high o2 mix? Just something i heard, was curious if someone could confirm or not

Steindor Corrigan
Tampa, fl

[jymz]

Two places on the planet can pull He from air, the rest is reaction made.

I dove commercial with a guy who did some work on hydrogen. Get a rebreather and use less He perhaps?