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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion of a tank at hydrogen components manufacturer

Event

Event ID
1083
Quality
Description

The accident happened during testing of a hydrogen tank at a company which manufactured valves and other hydrogen-storage components. A dull bang and a huge pressure wave was felt kilometres away. News report massive damage to the test facility, but a very small fire.
Still according to the news, the most probable cause emerging from the investigation was the over-pressuring of the tank due to an erroneous connection. While the news speak of a connection to a compressed air hose, another source specifies that it has been a 900 bar gas connection to a tank designed for a nominal working pressure of 350 bar. This is the most plausible explanation, by assuming that a pressure test was ongoing, with a inert gas such nitrogen.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
n.a.
Nature of the consequences
n.a.
Macro-region
Europe
Country
Austria
Date
Component involved
CGH2 tank (stationary)
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
wrong operation
Root CAUSE analysis

The INITIATING cause was the erroneous connection to a pressurised gas source much higher than the maximal pressure of the tank.
The sources report the company statement that material or component malfunctions could be excluded and that the ROOT CAUSE was a human error.
Due to the lack of details, it is not known if the event was the result of not following the procedures, or if there were shortcoming in the procedures, and therefore both causes are attributed to this event .

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
01/07/2024

Facility

Application
Hydrogen stationary storage
Sub-application
GH2 storage
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

tank

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
Confined
Location
industrial area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences

The tank was being tested. Since this incident seems to be related to high pressure failure only, and not to fire and chemical explosion, it could be assumed that the gas used for testing was an inert gas.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
1
Post-event summary

One worker was slightly injured, massive damage to the test facility, a very small fire.

Emergency action

Fire brigade and police evacuated the surrounding areas and set up cordons within a radius of around 500 meters, because the explosion of another even larger hydrogen tank could not be ruled out.
The nearby highway was closed in both directions and a specific area of the airspace was also blocked.

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
air 100%
Release temperature [°C]
25
Release pressure [MPa]
35
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
News
Reference & weblink

ORF news of 13/09/2023 cotnaining a first expnation of causes
https://steiermark.orf.at/stories/3223951/
(accessed Sep 2023)

ORF news of 09/08/2023 cotnaining a first expnation of causes
https://steiermark.orf.at/stories/3219226/
(accessed Sep 2023)

Presentation by the US H2 Centre for Hydrogen Safety, given to the workshop "Gulf Coast Hydrogen Ecosystem: Opportunities and Solutions,”
https://uh.edu/uh-energy-innovation/uh-energy/energy-symposium-series/2…
(accessed Dec 2024)