Event
- Event ID
- 259
- Quality
- Description
Gaseous hydrogen leaked from an oil pump part of the filling and conditioning system in a industrial gases production plant. The released hydrogen ignited and exploded.
The cause has been a human error: an operator turned gave a valve a ¼ turn, connecting containers, which were not empty, with the pump.
The hydrogen release occurred in an open space under an awning. This caused the flammable mixture to explode producing a fireball of 10 m of diameter. 2 workers were injured but the material damage was limited to a door and a small room.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- France
- Date
- Component involved
- valve (generic)
- Failure mode
- erroneous release
- Initiating cause
- wrong operation
- Root CAUSE analysis
A valve was misplaced by the operator, releasing hydrogen under the canopy.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2022
Facility
- Application
- Industrial gases production
- Sub-application
- hydrogen production unit
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
H2 compressor
- Process temperature range [C]
- ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- unknown
- Location type
- Semiconfined
- Location
- industrial area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 2
- Post-event summary
First degree burns for two employees
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
- Explosion type
- Flame type
References
- Sources categories
- ARIA
- Reference & weblink
Event description in the French database ARIA
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/4411/
(accessed December 2020)
