Helium Recovery & Purification Systems

Superior helium recovery: Purity and efficiency combined

Air Liquide delivers fully skidded and modularized factory-built helium solutions, from small size to large scale. Our design ensures quick construction, a predictable project schedule, lower costs, and superior quality. We offer a tailor-made approach to monetize raw helium, providing a high-purity product ready for export via tube trailers.

Key advantages

• Ultra-high recovery: Very high helium recovery (up to 98% possible) with Air Liquide performance guarantee.
• Purity: Product purity up to >99.999% mol.
• Compact design: Most compact solution with a small footprint due to our integrated membrane and PSA technology.
• Low cost & fast deployment: Low capital costs, low construction cost (fully modularized), and short lead time (typically <1 year from decision to first gas).
• Flexible capacity: Can treat a wide range of feed flows (0.5 to 100 MMSCFD) and helium content (0.05% to 10% mol).

Proprietary technology for market leadership

Our technology is a best-in-class combination of two key processes for the most effective and compact helium purification system:

• Air Liquide hollow fiber membrane: This poly-imide based membrane is proven and reliable for bulk separation. Helium is selectively enriched on the permeate side. It minimizes the need for extensive upstream pretreatment and offers exceptional chemical and thermal resistance.
• Xebec™ Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA): Following the membrane, the compact Xebec™ PSA unit is used for final purification. It uses a 9-bed, fast-cycle design with a single rotary valve for superior reliability and efficiency, selectively adsorbing all remaining impurities to produce high-purity helium.