Event
- Event ID
- 623
- Quality
- Description
During repairs of a heat exchanger in a benzene plant, a mixed gas (methane and hydrogen) contained in the cold box attached to the exchanger leaked and caught fire from a welding spark. The exchanger was severely damaged by the fire.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- Asia
- Date
- Component involved
- heat exchanger (cold box)
- Failure mode
- leak & ignition
- Initiating cause
- wrong operation
- Root CAUSE analysis
The ROOT CAUSE was the failure to close a valve with a blind plate, before starting the repairs. The cold box was not properly closed.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Petrochemical industry
- Sub-application
- Benzene production
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
Heat exchanger
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location
- industrial area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
The exchanger was severely damaged by the fire.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas mixture
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2, CH4
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- ICHEME
- Reference & weblink
Event nr 10256 of the UK database ICHEME in PDF format.
https://www.icheme.org/knowledge/safety-centre/resources/accident-data/
(accessed October 2020)
