Event
- Event ID
- 590
- Quality
- Description
A series of explosions occurred on an industrial estate on a trailer containing 80,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. Hydrogen was being transferred from the trailer when it leaked, ignited and exploded. The trailer and adjacent buildings were set on fire and workshops severely damaged. Cars nearby were also set on fire.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Date
- Component involved
- hose (trailer)
- Failure mode
- leak & ignition
- Initiating cause
- unknown
- Root CAUSE analysis
INITIATING CAUSE
a leakage from the road tanker, during hydrogen transfer, possibly caused by a mechanical failure and/or shortcoming in executing the transfer procedure.ROOT CAUSE
It is impossible to attribute without doubt a root cause, but procedure, risk assessment and therefore management could be a good starting point.- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 tube trailer
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
trailer
- 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
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
Assuming that the value of 80,000.00 cubic feet provided for the capacity represents standard cft of hydrogen, an inventory of ca. 200 kg was present.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 1
- Post-event summary
The tanker and adjacent buildings were set on fire and workshops severely damaged. Cars nearby were also set on fire.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
Flexible and/or mobile connections and systems are characterised by a higher probability of failure and gas leakage, than stationary systems. Great care should be put in considering this probability and its consequence, taking into account accidental scenarios also the environment in which the hydrogen transfer occurs. It is not only about the fire/explosion at the tanker, it is also about the domino effect which can be triggered by the standing by additional structures and machineries.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount (kg)
- 190
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
- Explosion type
References
- Sources categories
- Unknown
- Reference & weblink
Original source lost
