GE Healthcare broke ground on May 20 on a $17 million helium liquefaction facility in Florence, SC.
The 5,000-sq-ft facility, adjacent to GE's existing MRI production plant, will use proprietary techniques to capture pure helium gas and compress it into cold liquid form, which is necessary for MRI magnets to function.
GE's Florence facility uses 730 unique parts from 120 different suppliers to manufacture each MRI magnet, which helps support more than 8,400 jobs.
GE uses roughly 5.5 million liters of helium a year at the production facility and dedicates another 6 million liters per year to service MRI systems at hospitals and other sites across the U.S. Each MRI scanner needs up to several thousand liters of helium stored in a sealed vacuum system surrounding the magnet.
Increased helium demand and tightening supply have led GE to invest $1 million in boosting helium efficiency, including proprietary conservation technologies and helium recycling and reuse methods.
