45-8 Energy has inaugurated a helium pilot production facility in France’s Nièvre region, which it claims is the first of its kind in western Europe.
The Fonts-Bouillants project, inaugurated on Wednesday (September 11), aims to extract helium identified in shallow gas deposits of less than 100m deep.
The primary goal of the pilot is to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of long-term helium production in the area.
Source: 45-8 Energy
Technology has been developed in collaboration with the Reactions & Process Engineering Laboratory (CNRS – Lorraine) and patented this year.
45-Energy has filed an application for an Exclusive Research Permit (PER) for helium and carbon dioxide in an area of 251sqkm in the south of the Nivernais region.
The project comes as Europe strives to reduce its dependency on imported helium following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 45-8 Energy is dedicated to the exploration and production of helium and natural hydrogen in Europe.
Read more on helium and specialty gases in the October issue of gasworld global
