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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Failure of a liquid hydrogen tank

Event

Event ID
245
Quality
Description

A tank of liquefied hydrogen felt down in a chemical plant.
The tank, containing 100 m³ of liquid hydrogen, was installed on a concrete plate, which failed. The hydrogen started leaking from the valve at the bottom of the tank.
The operator declared the state of emergency and installed a safety perimeter. The emergency responders used a resin to close the leak, after which they defrosted and closed the valve.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Unignited Hydrogen Release
Nature of the consequences
leak no ignition
Macro-region
Europe
Country
France
Date
Component involved
cryogenic valve
Failure mode
leak, no ignition
Initiating cause
impact, rollover, crash
Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
01/01/2022

Facility

Application
Chemical industry
Sub-application
Inorganic chemicals products
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

Liquid hydroge nstorage

Location type
Confined
Location
populated area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Emergency action

The Internal Operation Plan was launched. A resin was used to stop the leak and the valve was de-frozen and closed. The Internal Operation Plan was cancelled after 6h30.

In-depth data

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

References

Sources categories
ARIA
Reference & weblink

Event description in the French database ARIA
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/10969/
(accessed October 2020)