Event
- Event ID
- 1056
- Quality
- Description
A hydrogen release and subsequent fire occurred at meter station of a pipeline transporting hydrogen to a refinery.
Local refinery emergency response team responded and secured the area. The pipeline was isolated, and the fire extinguished itself. During a winter storm, the area was experiencing abnormal freezing conditions and widespread power outages were occurring. As a result, third party hydrogen supply to the refinery was reduced. These upsets resulted in the need to export larger than normal flow rates on the hydrogen pipeline.
The incident investigation identified that there was erosion of the flow tubes in the 3-inch Coriolis meter. The initial event led to subsequent failures on the skid including the Coriolis meter housing, meter flange, an 8-inch manufactured elbow, and an 8-inch bypass line.
The meter station was redesigned and reconstructed to minimize the risk of erosion. Permanent repairs scheduled were completed after one year.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- pipeline (flowmeter)
- Failure mode
- rupture & ignition
- Initiating cause
- material degradation (internal corrosion / erosion)
- Root CAUSE analysis
The initial cause was the failing of a sub-component of a flow meter due to internal erosion.
Contributing and/or root causes were the design and the inspection/maintenance schedule.- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/07/2024
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- Pipeline
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
flow meter
- Process temperature range [C]
- ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
- Location type
- Open
- Location
- countryside or desert
- Operational condition
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
DESCRIPTION OF THE FACILITY
The pipeline had been installed in 2017. it was made of carbon steel, with a Max operative pressure of 2445 psig. At the moment of the incident the pressure was 1796 psig.
Gas flow was 77240 mcf.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 4.500.000
- Post-event summary
No consequence to environment or persons. Only costs related to materials damage and emergency intervention.
- Emergency action
The alarm was given by a person of the public. The local refinery emergency response team responded and secured the area. The pipeline was isolated, and the fire was let burn out and extinguished itself.
The normal operation restarted 7 days later.
6837 thousand standard cubic feet went lost during the leak (unintentional release)
Lesson Learnt
- Corrective Measures
:
The meter station was redesigned and reconstructed to minimize the risk of erosion. Permanent repairs scheduled were completed after one year.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount (kg)
- 16190
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Release pressure [MPa]
- 15.5
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
- Reference & weblink
Incident 20210022 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA:
https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/safety-reports/pipeline-failure-investigation…
