He 4

Helium-4 4He

In gas processing plants located in Kansas, Texas, and Colorado, the helium extracted from natural gas is predominantly Helium-4 (⁴He). This is because ³He is typically present in trace amounts, and its extraction is not generally pursued unless specifically required for specialized applications.

Key Points:

Helium Concentrations in Natural GasNatural gas fields in the Hugoton-Panhandle region, encompassing parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, contain helium concentrations ranging from 0.3% to 1.9%. Fields in the Colorado Plateau, including areas in Colorado, also exhibit helium-rich natural gas with concentrations exceeding 0.3%, making them economically viable for helium extraction.

Isotopic Composition: The helium extracted from these regions is primarily ⁴He, with ³He present only in negligible quantities. This is due to the fact that ³He is generally derived from the Earth's mantle and is relatively rare in natural gas reservoirs.

Because ⁴He is a boson, it forms a Bose-Einstein condensate at 2.17 K — leading to superfluidity.

³He, being a fermion, has to pair up (like electrons in superconductors) before it can become a superfluid. This happens at much lower temperatures, through Cooper pairing — like in quantum superconductivity.