Event
- Event ID
- 579
- Quality
- Description
A fire occurred at a non-further specified industrial plant. The fire was the consequence of a liquid hydrogen leak from a joint between an isolating block valve and a relief valve on one of the separation column preheater. The relief valve had been under repair and was being brought back onto line when the incident happened.
An investigation team was appointed. The first task was to confirm that it was safe to resume operation in the section of the plant.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- France
- Date
- Component involved
- joint/connection (glass)
- Failure mode
- leak & ignition
- Initiating cause
- unknown
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was a leak of liquid hydrogen which ignited.
ROOT CAUSE unknown.
- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen production
- Sub-application
- LH2 production
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
relief valve, blockvalve
- Process temperature range [C]
- cryogenic temperature (below -50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- low to medium pressure (below 2 MPa)
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location
- unknown
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
The relief valve had been under repair and was being brought back onto line when the incident happened.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
The damage was probaby lmited to teh immediate surroundings of the connection and to a quantitiy of rleased hydrogen
In-depth data
- Release type
- Liquid
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release pressure [MPa]
- <1.0
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- ICHEME
- Reference & weblink
Event of the UK database ICHEME.
https://www.icheme.org/knowledge/safety-centre/resources/accident-data/
