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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Accidental hydrogen production and fire in a electrical products plant

Event

Event ID
966
Quality
Description

Heavy rains (more than 600 mm in 1 day) had flood a factory manufacturing calcium core electrical conductors. The power supply was cut off. The water came into contact with the calcium stored in 150 kg containers, producing hydrogen (7.5 kg per container). The heat of reaction ignited the gas. The fire was extinguished with sand.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
fire
Macro-region
Asia
Country
South Korea
Date
Component involved
chemical storage tank
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
accidental hydrogen formation
Root CAUSE analysis

The ARIA report (see references) identifies as possible root cause the fact that the calcium containers were the probably insufficiently sealed to deal with the abnormal quantity of water cumulated.

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
01/01/2018

Facility

Application
Electrical, electronics and micro-electronics industry
Sub-application
electrical components production
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

calcium storage containers

Location type
Unknown
Location
populated area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences

Heavy rains (more than 600 mm in 1 day) had flood the factory.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
ARIA
Reference & weblink

Event description in the French database ARIA
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/14162/
(accessed October 2020)