Fire on a hydrogen bottle in R&D lab

The incident occurred at a university facility, in the premises of a spin-off company. A worker was checking the hydrogen pressure by opening the main valve on a hydrogen cylinder, when hydrogen escaped through the pressure regulator and ignited. The fire was contained in the laboratory, thanks to the building's fire sprinklers which were able to extinguish the fire before fire brigade arrived. The regulator on this cylinder had not been properly closed and was releasing into the lab.
There were no injuries.

The H2TOLS report at the base of this entry identified as probable root cause a human error in not following the procedures, with contributing cause incomplete procedures.
Form the H2TOOLS report it seems to appear that the probable cause of the ignition was residues of catalytic materials in the setting.

CGH2 bottle, regulator

Probable losses were related to water damage from the splinkers to lab equipment .

The automatic sprinkler system of the lab activated estinguishing the fire.

This actions which brought to this release belong to usual, standard actions executed every day in all laboratories using standard compressed gas bottles. It is very human that a certain amount of automatism take control.
This event seems have been triggered by distraction or by habits. It is probable that in most of the case, the regulator was connected to a system with additional valve preventing hydrogen releases, and that in this case it was not. It is also possible that a lack of specific knowledge paid a role. In any case, a pressure check n a bottle is one of those simple actions which are almost always executed without reading written procedures before. It is the role of a supervisor to ‘ break the habit’ and remind regularly workers of the possible consequence of such a simple action.

The H2TOLS provided the following recommendations:
(1) To Install a valve after the regulator as an added precaution.
(2) Clean the coupler at the end of the hydrogen delivery tube after each use to ensure that any catalyst residue has been removed.