He Recovery

Due to ongoing shortages and rising helium prices, we purchased and began renovations for a helium recovery system in late 2019. The system arrived in 2020 and we began
operation in early 2021. The recovery system is currently recycling the helium boil-off from six superconducting magnets in the department. The current setup produces roughly 5100 L of liquid He per year and delivers about 2800 L of liquid He to the six magnets with a recovery rate of 95%.

Our helium recovery system uses a CryoMech liquid helium plant. This includes

• an atmospheric pressure recovery bag,
• a recovery compressor,
• medium pressure storage tanks,
• an automatic helium purifier,
• a LHeP22 helium liquefaction plant with a 150 L collection dewar.

The manifolds that connect the magnets to the He collection circuit are based on the setup at Yale’s NMR facility.

More details below.