Skip to main content
Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion in a sodium chlorate production plant

Event

Event ID
576
Quality
Description

Insufficient purge allowed a mixture of air, hydrogen and chlorine to collect in cell liquor tanks.

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
chemical storage tank
Failure mode
internal explosion
Initiating cause
inadequate or no purge
Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
28/01/2026

Facility

Application
Chemical industry
Sub-application
Chlorine & derivates production
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

chemicals storage tank

Process temperature range [C]
Above ambient temperature (50°C to 100°C)
Process pressure range [MPa]
medium pressure (2 to 10 MPa)
Location type
Confined
Location
unknown
Operational condition
UNKNOWN

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Currency
US$
Property loss (onsite)
350.000

In-depth data

Probable IGNITION SOURCE
Explosion type

References

Sources categories
Zalosh
Reference & weblink

Table II - Industrial Incidetns of Appendix A of Zalosh and Short

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FIRE AND EXPLOSION INCIDENTS

Quarterly Report No. 2 for Period December 1, 1977 - February 28, 1978

https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6566131

(accessed September 2020)