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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Release from a CGH2 tube trailer

Event

Event ID
239
Quality
Description

A CGH2 tube trailer had been filled at the production facility and was parked awaiting pickup by the company. A rupture disc failed on one of the cylinders resulting in the release to the atmosphere of 11817 standard cubic feet (30 kg) of gaseous hydrogen. The hydrogen ignited but extinguished itself upon emptying of the tube. An investigation determined that the rupture discs were improperly assembled by the manufacturer.
All rupture discs were then removed from this tube trailer and replaced with new assemblies.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
fire
Macro-region
North America
Country
United States
Date
Component involved
PRD (burst disc)
Failure mode
premature activation & venting
Initiating cause
wrong installation
Root CAUSE analysis

INITIATING CAUSE was the opening of a burst disc.
The ROOT CAUSE was the erroneous assembling of the disc system. Nothing is known on the reason for this (a wrong procedure, a mistake of the operator, wrong material set?)

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
25/10/2024

Facility

Application
Hydrogen transport and distribution
Sub-application
CGH2 tube trailer
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

burst disc

Process temperature range [C]
ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
Process pressure range [MPa]
medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
Location type
Open
Location
industrial area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Currency
US$
Property loss (onsite)
177
Post-event summary

Only a small material loss: U$ 177.00

Emergency action

The fire was left extinguishing of its own

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Released amount (kg)
30.1
Release temperature [°C]
25
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
PHMSA
Reference & weblink

Incident I-1993061139 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA:
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%…
(accessed September 2024)