Event
- Event ID
- 531
- Quality
- Description
Hydrogen escaped when a venting valve was opened for the inspection of a cap. The escaped hydrogen caught fire, resulting in the death of 4 people, injuries to others 3 and damages to the plant.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- European Union
- Date
- Component involved
- valve (generic)
- Failure mode
- erroneous release & ignition
- Initiating cause
- inadequate or no purge
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the release and ignition of hydrogen when a tank was opened for inspection.
The tank under renovation probably had not been completely degasified, hinting at a ROOT CAUSE related to inadequate procedures.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Unknown
- Sub-application
- CGH2 stationary storage
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
CGH2 tank
- Process temperature range [C]
- ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- unknown
- Location type
- Confined
- Location
- unknown
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
a venting valve in the tank was opened for the inspection of a cap.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 4
- Number of injured persons
- 3
- Post-event summary
The result of the fire was 4 fatalities, 3 injuries and damages to the plant.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
Incidents with pressurised flammable gas systems are often caused by an inadequate purging or inertisation, with consequent flammable gas residual left inside.
Any operation on tanks having previously contained any kind of flammable liquid or gas shall be performed only after a complete degasification, the results of which have to be verified my measures.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- ICHEME
- Reference & weblink
Event nr 8761 of the UK database ICHEME in PDF format
https://www.icheme.org/knowledge/safety-centre/resources/accident-data/
(accessed October 2020)
