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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Breakaway failure during FCEV refuelling

Event

Event ID
737
Quality
Description

While a FCEV was being refuelled at 70-MPa hydrogen dispenser. fueling, the fueling hose breakaway separated. No externalfoces were applied on the compnent, it failed only due to the internal pressure of the gas in the fueling hose. Post-incident inspection revealed that the pull force set point was incorrectly adjusted.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
No Hydrogen Release
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
North America
Country
United States
Date
Component involved
dispenser (hose)
Failure mode
damage, no release
Initiating cause
wrong installation
Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
15/04/2026

Facility

Application
Hydrogen refuelling station
Sub-application
Dispenser
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

breakaway

Process temperature range [C]
ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
Process pressure range [MPa]
high pressure (above 50 MPa)
Location type
Open
Location
unknown
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Environmental damage
0
Property loss (onsite)
0

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

The H2TOOLS report does not identify a root cause of this event. For this, it would be necessary to know the responsibility of the hose or dispenser manufacturer on delivery and if a procedure was in place to verify that the hose parameters were meeting specification.
Nevertheless, a generic lesson learnt from this event regards the need for the HRS operator to verify and periodically inspect the pull/separation force adjustment of the breakaway.

Corrective Measures

The breakaway was replaced with a new one, and the dispenser operations were resumed.

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Release pressure [MPa]
70
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
H2TOOLS
Reference & weblink

Event of the US database H2TOOLS
https://h2tools.org/lessons/breakaway-separation-during-fueling
(accessed April 2026)