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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

LH2 tanker release

Event

Event ID
1101
Quality
Description

According to local news, a "hydrogen tanker truck hauling was on fire" at a travel centre on a highway. The videos show, however, simply a flame from what probably is the pressure relief device of the tank.
All businesses in the area and the highway were evacuated as crews investigated the incident. The evacuation remains in place to the morning of the day after.
While one video shows a continuous and rather stable flame, another video shows an intermittent jet fire, possibly caused by a valve opening and closing and releasing ignited hydrogen.

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
PRD (valve)
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

It seems plausible to attribute the incident to the opening of a pressure relief device. It is however unclear if this was a failure of the material of the device, or a response to an increase of the internal pressure.

Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
01/07/2024

Facility

Application
Hydrogen transport and distribution
Sub-application
LH2 tanker
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

unknown

Process temperature range [C]
cryogenic temperature (below -50°C)
Process pressure range [MPa]
low to medium pressure (below 2 MPa)
Location type
Open
Location
highway or similar
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Property loss (onsite)
0
Emergency action

All businesses in the area were evacuated as crews investigated the incident. The evacuation remains in place to the morning of the day after. The fire brigades kept throwing water on the tank.

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Released amount (kg)
536.33610900833
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
News
Reference & weblink