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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion and fire in a desulphurisation unit of a refinery

Event

Event ID
645
Quality
Description

An explosion and fire broke out at a heavy oil direct desulfurization unit at a refinery. The location of the explosion was approximately at 20 meters height.
The fire burned within a radius of approximately 30 meters on a portion of the refinery site, which covered approximately 15,000 m².

The fire was extinguished approximately 10 hours later. The refinery stopped the supply of heavy oil and the 1,000 kl of heavy oil and hydrogen remaining in the equipment was left to burn out. The fire department intervened attempting to extinguish the fire by injecting nitrogen into the piping.
According to the refinery, prior to the explosion, multiple gas detectors detected an abnormality in an area containing a high-temperature, high-pressure separation tank, which separates heavy oil from gas, and staff were on their way to inspect it.
(translation from Japanese by means of Google Translate)

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Asia
Country
Japan
Date
Component involved
reactor / oven / furnace / test chamber
Failure mode
leak & ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
01/01/2020

Facility

Application
Petrochemical industry
Sub-application
Hydrodesulphurisation process
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

separation tank

Process temperature range [C]
High temperature (100°C to 500°C)
Location type
Open
Location
populated area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Emergency action

The supply of heavy oil was stopped, and the heavy oil - hydrogen inventory left in the desulphurisation unit was left to burn out. The fire department dispatched 27 fire engines, including chemical fire engines: they fought the fire by injecting nitrogen into the piping. A safety perimetner within a radius of 1-4 km was installed.

In-depth data

Release type
gas mixture
Involved substances (% vol)
H2
heavy oil
Probable IGNITION SOURCE
Explosion type

References

Sources categories
Scientific article
Reference & weblink

Journal of Japan Society for Safety Engineering,Vol.42(2),p.117(2003)
In Japanese, available at:
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/safety/42/2/42_117/_pdf/-char/en

Journal of Japan Society for Safety Engineering,Vol.42(2),p.117(2003)
Google translate