Grant for Cost-Saving Helium Recovery Equipment Boosts UW Research

TeYu Chien is poised to save the University of Wyoming a lot of money at a time of resource scarcity.

 

Chien, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy -- together with co-principal investigators Alex Petrović, Jinke Tang and Jifa Tian -- received a $644,711 major research instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation to overhaul the university’s low-temperature labs by installing a new, state-of-the-art liquid helium recovery (LHeR) system.

 

Liquid helium is used in many labs across campus whose equipment must operate at ultra-low temperatures -- down to at least 450 degrees below zero. This is vital for research that makes use of, for example, scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. To use these technologies, the university must purchase new liquid helium every time it is used in the existing cooling system. Helium, however, is a finite resource, which is problematic as global helium supplies are dwindling and costs are skyrocketing.

 

To address this shortage, the new LHeR system will enable the recovery of helium, which warms into a gas after use, essentially recycling it back into liquid form for reuse on site, with a projected 90 percent recovery rate. Consequently, UW will gain a readily available on-site helium supply and reap significant financial savings.

 

For a single experiment, the helium supply can cost in excess of $4,000 per week at current usage and prices, and each experiment may run for several weeks in a row. With seven labs using the system year-round, this adds up quickly. Moreover, because the liquid helium can evaporate during the shipping process, a significant amount can be lost before it even arrives on site. The helium recovery system will help the university save over two-thirds of that cost and increase the number of experiments the university can run.

 

Beyond Chien’s own research in the physics of low-dimensional materials and applications in quantum computing, the new system will be shared across five physics labs and two chemistry labs in the Physical Sciences Building. This will immediately benefit dozens of graduate and undergraduate students within the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, and it will be available to any on campus who need it for their research -- for example, in quantum computing, materials science, geology and biology.

 

In addition to the installation of the new system, the grant, titled “Equipment: MRI: Acquisition of Helium Recovery Equipment for Quantum Science at the University of Wyoming,” includes the development and implementation of a “parallel educational program in cryogenic engineering, including safe liquid helium handling and low-temperature instrumentation design, thus providing valuable opportunities to train both technical and academic workforces,” according to the grant abstract. Moreover, a graduate-student-run committee will handle daily operation of the LHeR system, giving the students a valuable new sector of experience to add to their resumes and bolster the competitiveness of UW students on the job market.