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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion due to rail collision

Event

Event ID
72
Quality
Description

An hydrogen explosion occurred at a railway station during shunting. Two rail cars collided, one ruptured. Nothing further is known. The following explosion was classified as BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions).

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
North America
Country
United States
Date
Component involved
LH2 tank (road tanker)
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
impact, rollover, crash
Root CAUSE analysis

The INITIATING CAUSE was the collision between two rail cars
The ROOT CAUSE is unknown

Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
30/05/2025

Facility

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

rail car

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

Emergency & Consequences

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

The only known fact tis that the ' car reptured' . It is to be assumed that it was a total loss.

In-depth data

Release type
liquid
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Probable IGNITION SOURCE
Explosion type

References

Sources categories
Scientific article
Reference & weblink

Palle Haastrup and Lars.Brockhoff
Severity of accidents with hazardous materials - A comparison between transportation and fixed installations
J. Loss Prevention Process Ind., 13 (990), 395-405

WIKIPEDIA page 'List of boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor_ex…
(accessed June 2025)