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BOC Helium Plant Celebrates 40th Anniversary; World's First Plant to Produce Bulk Quantities of Liquid
Helium
Murray
Hill, N.J., Oct. 12: In 1965, helium party balloons were only available to the rich and famous, and a technology known as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which requires liquid helium to be able to take pictures inside our bodies, was still just a theory in scientists' minds. In October of that year, a plant capable of producing liquid helium in larger quantities than ever before, came online in Otis, Kansas, and helped support a cultural and scientific revolution.
BOC will be commemorating the 40th anniversary of its Otis plant this month by hosting a series of events for employees and invited guests.
The Otis plant was a trailblazer for its time, the culmination of work BOC (NYSE:
BOX) had done to develop the market for helium. Before then, the production and distribution of helium was mostly controlled by the U.S. government, which used it to hoist weather and military observation balloons. But legislative changes in the early 1960s paved the way for private industry to enter the helium business.
BOC, which had then been the sole distributor of government produced helium, was the first to be able to meet customer needs in such weighty areas as low-temperature physics research and also in lighter ones, such as the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day parade.
"Because we had developed what limited market there was in helium before the early 1960s, we saw a good future for helium. BOC became the leader in helium sourcing and supply, a position that continues to this day," said Phil Kornbluth, vice president, helium and rare gases, BOC.
In 1965, total worldwide demand for helium was less than what BOC's Otis plant now produces in one year. Since then, global demand for helium has grown rapidly as manufacturers realized helium's unique properties could aid in a wide range of applications. Demand came from such applications as superconductivity research, which fueled the development of MRI; from welding, where helium is used as a shielding gas; and from semiconductor and optical fiber production. The U.S. government remains a major consumer, using helium extensively in the space and defense industries.
The Otis plant was originally built by an independent company called Kansas Refined Helium, which contracted to sell its entire output to BOC (then Airco). After years of purchasing its entire output, BOC acquired the Otis plant in 1977. It has been the backbone of BOC's global helium business ever since.
Today, BOC's Otis plant, one of the world's largest, refines and produces more helium in one month than it did in the first year it began operating. The plant refines crude helium purchased from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, as well as from private producers that extract it from natural gas fields in the U.S. Mid-continent. The helium is then purified and liquefied for shipment across the country and around the world.
Otis' current production capacity represents some 16 percent of the world's current helium demand. Since 1965, the plant's total output would have filled 74,257 blimps - or just over five blimps a day for the past 40 years. The plant, which spans 30 acres, employs 70 people, including drivers and plant operators.
In addition to its Otis plant, BOC, the world's leading helium supplier, also has access to helium produced by sources in Algeria, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Utah and Wyoming. BOC supplies helium to its customers through a global distribution network that includes 48 local transfill, or distribution, facilities and has the largest fleet of specially insulated helium containers in the industry.
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