The U.S. Department of Energy has designated helium as a critical raw material, and this is significant for everyone who relies on it. On October 23, 2026, the DOE announced that Energy Secretary Chris Wright had designated helium as a critical raw material under the Energy Act of 2020. The DOE cites helium’s indispensable role in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced energy technologies, as well as growing concerns about supply security. Global demand is growing faster than production.
The focus is shifting
For companies that consume large quantities of helium, it is no longer just a matter of where they source it. It is also about how they can keep it in the cycle.
Helium is chemically almost completely inert and therefore does not react during a process. It is lost when it escapes through leaks or venting, or when it leaves the process mixed with other gases. If helium remains in an accessible stream, it can often be recovered.
What ReiCat Recycling Systems Can Do
Our helium recycling systems can recover up to 98% of the helium and purify it to purity level 5.0 (≥ 99.999%) or even 6.0 (≥ 99.9999%), so that it can be reused in industrial processes.
If your process uses large quantities of helium and the gas escapes as a mixture containing trace impurities, there may be significant potential to recover it and purify it for reuse. Whether this potential actually exists for your process depends on the volume, the composition of the mixture, and the nature of the gas loss.
A Specific Application: Plasma Arc Melting (PAM)
One particularly relevant application is plasma arc melting (PAM). For this process, we have developed a specialized helium recovery solution that is in use at several reference plants worldwide.
Sources
The title and date are taken from the U.S. Department of Energy’s announcement dated October 23, 2026: https://www.energy.gov/node/4860914
