What goes up does not come down: Helium recovery and liquefaction at the University of Edinburgh

Helium is a vital element used in liquid form to cool scientific and medical equipment. It is a non-renewable resource, identified by the Royal Society of Chemistry as one of the most critically endangered elements. Now, newly installed technology in the School of Chemistry Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility captures and reliquefies helium in a fully closed-loop system, significantly reducing operating costs and sustainably managing this vital resource. 

With a boiling point of −296 °C - just 4 degrees above absolute zero, and the only substance to remain liquid at these low temperatures - helium is vital for cooling scientific equipment such as magnets of our NMR spectrometers, as well as for medical MRI imagers. Helium is a non-renewable resource; any helium entering the atmosphere eventually escapes the Earth’s gravity and is lost in space. In other words, what goes up does not come down! 

The NMR facility in the School of Chemistry features four liquid-state and one solid-state spectrometer used for characterisation of small molecules, biomolecules, polymers and inorganic materials. The facility also hosts the Scottish High-Field Centre, with an 800 MHz dual-purpose spectrometer used by universities across Scotland for complex mixture analysis and structural biology in the liquid state, and inorganic materials chemistry in the solid state. The spectrometers rely on super-conducting magnets cooled by liquid helium, consuming 3000 litres annually at a cost to the School of over £100k.

The SoC NMR facility installed a helium gas recovery system in 2018, which to date has captured over 15,000 m³, or 95% of the helium used by the facility, enough to fill over 1 million party balloons. Taking this a step further, the School of Chemistry have now become the first UK NMR facility to install a helium liquefaction plant. This enables over 22 litres of liquid helium per day to be produced in-house using the gas recovered from the magnets, creating a fully closed-loop system. With an annual capacity of 8000 litres a year, the liquefier removes the need to purchase liquid helium from commercial suppliers. This system is anticipated to make significant cost savings for the School of Chemistry compared to purchasing commercially produced liquid helium, along with securing a sustainable supply that is decoupled from market fluctuations.

Installation of the helium liquefaction plant was completed in January 2025 by Cryomech, with Motivair providing supporting works relating to the helium recovery system. In the first month since commissioning, the liquefaction plant has produced over 400 litres of liquid helium, which has been successfully used to cool the spectrometer magnets, demonstrating full functionality of the system.

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Facility at the School of Chemistry is one of the leading facilities in the UK specialising in the structure determination and identification of small molecules, complex mixture analysis and biomolecular NMR. The facility is home to the Scottish High Field NMR Centre, housing a liquid/solid-state 800 MHz NMR spectrometer, the highest field available in Scotland. The facility is available for use by external academic and industrial parties, or work can be undertaken on a service basis.

Browse our facilities brochure to find out more about other key facilities.

Please contact Cameron Chalmers to learn more about services and facilities use.

Facilities enquiries: SoC-Facilities@ei.ed.ac.uk 

Read more about how the School of Chemistry works with industry: https://chem.ed.ac.uk/working-industry