Renergen to start selling helium soon

Renergen announced that its liquid helium (LHe) production training is now fully operational, and the company plans to start selling helium to customers soon.

In a SENS announcement released this morning, Renergen said it is pleased to announce that its LHe production train is now fully operational and accumulating LHe inventory for sale to its customers, whose Iso-container is scheduled to arrive later this month for filling.

Renergen said it has taken over complete operational control of the Phase 1 plant from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) who has departed South Africa. 

It said that, since 19 July 2024, the plant has been producing LHe, initially utilising the output to cool the vacuum jacketed pipelines and the inline helium storage tank to around 4.5 kelvin, a prerequisite to ensure that LHe from the helium separator once sent to storage remains liquid. 

“The optimisation efforts during the commissioning phase have also yielded impressive results, evidenced by a significant reduction in timelines for the plant start-up and cooldown processes,” the company said.

“For context, the initial startup and cooldown of the integrated LNG/LHe plant took over 65 days, while the most recent cooldown was accomplished in just 9 days.”

This comes after a helium specialist from the United States has been on-site since 26 July.

The specialist has been working with Renergen’s project, operations, and engineering teams, providing expert guidance on plant performance optimization and fine-tuning production operation and control methodologies. 

“His experience with several cryogenic helium plants has helped our team greatly shorten what is typically accepted as an iterative process to optimal performance,” the company said.

Renergen said it plans to extend the specialist’s service beyond this phase into ongoing support and will also encompass LHe elements of its Phase 2 project.

“Despite the challenges encountered in reaching this milestone, we are thrilled to have achieved this significant development and to commence LHe sales to our customers,” the company said.

“Our team has unequivocally demonstrated its capability to manage and operate this facility effectively in the face of challenges and under extreme pressure.”

“The board and executive management take immense pride in this achievement, and we thank every one of our team who have worked tirelessly and made enormous personal sacrifices to make this objective a reality.” 

CEO Stefano Marani said we can now declare South Africa one of a select few countries worldwide to produce liquid helium for the global market.