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US natural resources company Interlune claims to have produced 99% pure helium-3 by cryogenically distilling Grade A helium resources.
The company said its Cold Capture technology separated the highly rare helium-3 from ordinary helium at temperatures close to absolute zero.
The helium isotope is obtained from the natural decay of tritium and is extremely rare on Earth. Helium specialist Richard Brook previously told gasworld helium-3 does not derive naturally in any great quantities or economically viable means.
Interlune did not disclose the volumes of helium-3 produced or the quantities of helium required for the process.
However, it claimed its cryogenic technology could address the need for helium-3 in quantum computing cooling and ultimately be used to harvest industrial quantities of helium-3 from lunar regolith.
On a commercial level, Rob Meyerson, CEO of Interlune, explained, “Every litre of helium produced in the world contains trace amounts of helium-3.”
“[Interlune’s cryogenic technology] plugs into existing helium liquefaction plant infrastructure to recover that helium-3 and turn it into a valuable product,” he added.
If successfully integrated across domestic helium infrastructure, Interlune estimates its cryogenic technology would triple US production of helium-3.
In May of this year, the company won a to develop and test a payload suite to measure gases in lunar soil and demonstrate early-stage extraction technologies for helium-3 and hydrogen.
Helium-3 also has applications in the domestic defence sector, with the US Air Force using the rare isotope in research and development (R&D) programmes involving superconducting quantum computers.
In November 2025, Interlune announced it had received a $1.2m Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II contract from AFWERX, the innovation branch of the US Air Force, to develop its cryogenic helium-3 technology.
Helium-3 purchase agreements
Outside of AFWERX funding, Interlune has secured almost $500m in helium-3 purchase agreements, in addition to raising $23m in venture capital and receiving around $18m in non-dilutive funding from the US government and others.
In May 2025, the company announced its first commercial customer, Denver-headquartered quantum infrastructure company Maybell Quantum, agreed to purchase “thousands of litres” of helium-3 for annual delivery starting from 2029 up to 2035.
In September 2025, global cryogenic cooling systems specialist Bluefors to purchase up to 10,000 litres of helium-3 annually from 2028 to 2037, marking one of the largest helium-3 purchase agreements to date.
