Event
- Event ID
- 1123
- Quality
- Description
A trailer-tractor carrying liquid hydrogen had been parked nearly 36 hours when the rupture disc blew. This resulted in a hydrogen plume which ignited. The fire continued until it ran out of fuel.
[Note of HIAD Validator: considering the little amount of LH2 declared as lost, it could be concluded that the trailer was almost empty.]
- 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
- over-pressurisation (boil-off)
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIAL CAUSE was the opening of the burst disc due to internal over-pressure
The ROOT CAUSE was probably no respecting the procedures. It is to be expected that after three days the heat flow through the thermal insulation of a LH2 cryogenic vessel will begin to heat the liquid, increasing evaporation and internal pressure.- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 09/09/2024
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
burst disc
- 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
- Pre-event occurrences
The trailer had been parked for 36 hours.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 0
- Post-event summary
No injury, only a loss of hydrogen (17 kg)
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount (kg)
- 17.430923542771
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
- Reference & weblink
Incident E-2011060224 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA:
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%…
(accessed September 2024)
