Event
- Event ID
- 1190
- Quality
- Description
Hydrogen leaked from a liquid hydrogen tank-trailer parked at a rest area of a highway.
The release was remarked as a plume of with vapour, plausibly caused by cold hydrogen release and vapour condensation.
Police, fire authorities, and Korea Gas Safety Corporation checked the amount of hydrogen leakage and the risk of explosion at the scene and mobilised the safety equipment required to complete the safe remove hydrogen from the tank, which happened in 6 hours.
There were no injuries or negative consequence to health. Nevertheless, dealing with the emergency caused severe congestion in the area. The rest area and a 13 km section of the highway were closed for more than three hours causing traffic chaos.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- leak no ignition
- Macro-region
- Asia
- Country
- South Korea
- Date
- Component involved
- piping (weld)
- Failure mode
- rupture, no ignition
- Initiating cause
- material degradation (generic)
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE appears to be a leak at valve-pipe joint in the control cabinet at the rear of the tank.
The ROOT CAUSE is unknown- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 30/08/2025
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
valve, pipe
- 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
The first responders emptied the leaking tank successfully.
The rest area and a 13 km section of the highway were closed for more than three hours causing traffic chaos.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
There is not enough information to draw specific lesson n learnt, The only point deserving mentioning is that this incident confirm the general evidence that liquid hydrogen tank releases do not ignite often.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- News
- Reference & weblink
Gasnews.com news
https://www.gasnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=121253
(accessed August 2025)YonHap TV news
https://www.yonhapnewstv.co.kr/news/MYH20250809194255754
(accessed August 2025)YonHap TV news
https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/transport/liquid-hydrogen-leak-from-tan…
(accessed August 2025)