Event
- Event ID
- 1007
- Quality
- Description
This incident occurred in a unit processing vegetable oils and fats.
an explosion occurred in a hydrogenation facility, specifically where hydrogen is processed with a very high-pressure (400 bar). Accidental mixing with oxygen caused an explosion which further ignited oil, fat, and alcohol. The volatile mixture produced the acrid black smoke seen and felt in the surroundings.
A fire-brigade from the involved town was at the scene in a few minutes and was assisted by the Fire Department of a bigger city. Approximately one hour later the fire was extinguished.
An employee of a contractor was injured when he fell from a scaffold, and two truck drivers were examined as outpatients.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- Germany
- Date
- Component involved
- reactor / oven / furnace / test chamber
- Failure mode
- rupture & ignition
- Initiating cause
- unknown
- Root CAUSE analysis
The results of the internal investigation is not publicly available. Both the district government and the company agreed that it was plausible to identify in a material failure the INITIATING cause of the incident.
Therefore, only the INITIATING cause is known, and not even in details.- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 12/11/2024
Facility
- Application
- Chemical industry
- Sub-application
- Oils, fats production processes
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
pipe
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
- Location type
- Semiconfined
- Location
- populated area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 3
- Post-event summary
An employee of a contractor was injured when he fell from a scaffold, and two truck drivers were examined as outpatients.
According to the company, no poisonous substances leaked, and the strong rubber smell was caused by burning cable insulation.- Emergency action
Fire-brigades from two different sites intervened, in one hour the fire was under control.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release pressure [MPa]
- 40
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
- Explosion type
References
- Sources categories
- ZEMA
- Reference & weblink
Event from German database ZEMA
https://www.infosis.uba.de/index.php/de/binaries/asset/zema_ereignis/16…
(accessed December 2024)News of Westdeutsche Zeitung on 14 and 17 April 2011
https://www.wz.de/app/consent/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wz.de%2Fnrw%2Fdues…
(accessed Aug 2023)News of Westdeutsche Zeitung on 14 and 17 April 2011
https://www.wz.de/app/consent/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wz.de%2Fnrw%2Fdues…
(accessed Aug 2023)News of Rheinishce Poston 10 April 2011
https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/duesseldorf/cognis-produktion-wieder-g…
(accessed Aug 2023)