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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion in an electrical appliance manufacturing plant.

Event

Event ID
964
Quality
Description

Hydrogen was accidentally produced inside the sealed container containing a used battery. The gas, along 6 days deformed the container. Firefighters equipped with breathing apparatus opened the container remotely triggering a considerable explosion.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Europe
Country
France
Date
Component involved
battery
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

The ARIA report does not identifies any cause. It is known that lead-acid batteries and metals batteries can accidentally release gaseous hydrogen, and that used, aged batteries run a higher risk to fail. Sealing such a battery in a container without monitoring and ventilation was a ill-decision.

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
01/01/2018

Facility

Application
Electrical, electronics and micro-electronics industry
Sub-application
electrochemical battery storage
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

electrochemical battery system

Location type
Confined
Location
populated area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Emergency action

The firefighter released the hydrogen remotely.

In-depth data

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

References

Sources categories
ARIA
Reference & weblink

Event description in the French database ARIA
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/28822/
(accessed October 2020)