Event
- Event ID
- 402
- Quality
- Description
A hydrogen compressor had a major malfunction resulting in serious cavitations, vibrations and dead heading of the 1st stage. The incident resulted in 5 of the 8 lower head bolts on the first stage to snap, oil losses and damage to the 1st stage diaphragms. No breaches of hydrogen or contamination took place. The situation was noticed in a remote log in when reviewing the compressor pressures. The system was safely shut down and followed up by an on site investigation an hour later.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- No Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- Norway
- Date
- Component involved
- compressor / booster / pump (valve)
- Failure mode
- leak, no ignition
- Initiating cause
- material degradation (generic)
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was likely the malfunctioning of a high-pressure component
The most probable component culprit was the inlet valve used for top off filling. This valve may have leaked and allowed high pressure hydrogen into the inter-stage when it was not expected. This caused the 1st stage to dead head which likely lead to the bolts breaking, oil loss and further cavitation's high vibrations.
The ROOT CAUSE was unknown.
- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen refuelling station
- Sub-application
- HRS 35 MPa
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
inlet valve,H2 compressor
- 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
- Unknown
- Location
- unknown
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
Compressor was repaired ad back in operation as of two weeks after.
- Emergency action
The system was shut down followed by an on site investigation an hour later.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The safety measures functioned as designed and the system was safely shut down, although with damages.
However, the investigation was not able to full determine technical reasons and causes of the problem. Few changes were made and was decided to increase the attention to the operational history of the component, to be able to catch early sign of a possible re-occurrence of the problem.- Corrective Measures
(1) To add in the program logic a shutdown in combination with high interstage pressure, which may shutdown the system in time to prevent damage.
(2) Trending information on the station history was updated to see the details of future incidents and operational efficiency of the compressor.
(3) Reduction of the inter-stage safety valve is also in future plans.
In-depth data
- Release type
- no release
- Released amount (kg)
- 0
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Release pressure [MPa]
- 35
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- Investigation report
- Reference & weblink
Provided to JRC by the operator of the facility (confidential)
