Event
- Event ID
- 657
- Quality
- Description
A reactor of a wide-range hydrocracking unit being operated by computer at 2500 psi (170 bar) failed explosively due to localised heating. Resulting explosion caused injuries and widespread damage to refinery and nearby plants.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- reactor / oven / furnace / test chamber
- Failure mode
- internal explosion
- Initiating cause
- over-heating
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the injection into the reactor of an excess of hydrogen, which triggered a run-away reaction.
The ROOT CAUSE is not provided. It could be nevertheless plausibly attributed to an error in the execution of the process, the act that the process was automated suggest that the reported excess of hydrogen was due to a design shortcoming.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Petrochemical industry
- Sub-application
- Hydrocracking process
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
reactor
- Process temperature range [C]
- Very high temperature (500°C to 1000°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location
- industrial area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 3
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 27.000.000
- Post-event summary
The blast caused 3 injuries and a widespread damage over a 300 yard (270 m) radius including an adjoining catalytic cracker and crude pipe still where the roof of the control building collapsed. Other units were safely shut down from a blast resistant control building which sustained minor damage.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas-liquid mixture
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2,
hydrocarbons - Release pressure [MPa]
- 17
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
- Explosion type
References
- Sources categories
- ICHEME
- Reference & weblink
Event nr 503 extracted from the UK database ICHEME in PDF format
('equipment-reactors-details')
https://www.icheme.org/knowledge/safety-centre/resources/accident-data/
(accessed October 2020)Table II - Industrial Incidetns of Appendix A of Zalosh and Short
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FIRE AND EXPLOSION INCIDENTS
Quarterly Report No. 2 for Period December 1, 1977 - February 28, 1978
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6566131
(accessed September 2020)
