Can "no liquid helium technology" alleviate China's helium shortage

According to the "Helium Market Research Report 2021", China's actual import volume of helium has been declining for four consecutive years, and the application scenarios of helium in the Chinese market may change. The most typical is the optical fiber field. The use of helium is reduced by recovering helium in the drawing furnace and improving the cooling system. The industry told the gas circle that not only the drawing process, the sintering process also reduces the use of helium. It is expected in the future The overall helium consumption in the optical fiber field has been reduced by more than 50%. The area with the largest consumption of liquid helium is MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). MRI experts of Sinopharm believe that with the major advances in magnet production technology, the use of liquid helium in MRI will decrease year by year. It is expected that in 15 years, the liquid helium in the field of MRI will be reduced. The demand for helium has dropped by about 95%.

On April 28, 2021, Philips Ingenia Ambition won the 2020 "Technology Innovation Award". Philips liquid helium-free magnetic resonance Ingenia Ambition pioneered the use of Blueseal technology to promote the development of magnetic resonance equipment into a new era of liquid helium-free.

On July 6, 2021, Wandong Medical plans to issue A shares. It plans to invest 444 million yuan to pass technical breakthroughs to realize the independent development of all core components of MRI products except superconducting magnets, and to achieve a series of MRI products without liquid helium simultaneously. R&D and industrialization.

The field of cryogenic engineering is another big consumer of liquid helium besides MRI. On June 24, 2021, the non-liquid helium dilution refrigerator independently developed by the Physics Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences achieved extremely low temperatures of nearly 10mK (0.01 degrees higher than absolute zero -273.15 degrees Celsius), marking China's breakthrough in the development of high-end cryogenic instruments Progress, with the ability to provide extremely low temperature conditions for quantum computing and other cutting-edge research. Ji Zhongqing, an associate researcher at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained: “Different from the traditional wet dilution refrigerator that relies on liquid helium for auxiliary cooling, the non-liquid helium dilution refrigerator does not require liquid helium supply, has a large sample space, long continuous operation time and operation and maintenance. Convenient, it has rapidly spread and become the mainstream of the market in the last ten years."

The non-liquid helium dilution refrigerator is a high-end scientific research instrument that can provide an environment close to absolute zero. It is widely used in scientific research fields such as condensed matter physics, material science, particle physics, and astronomical exploration. It does not require the assistance of liquid helium, and can achieve extremely low temperatures of only 0.01 degrees above absolute zero, and can provide the extremely low temperature environment necessary for quantum computer chips to maintain the quantum state.