Event
- Event ID
- 839
- Quality
- Description
A fire broke out at a flange inside a heat exchanger of the catalytic reforming unit of a refinery.
This heat exchanger had the purpose to pre-heat the load of heavy oil and hydrogen by recovering the heat of the products coming from the reactors.
No flame and smoke were visible from the outside. The unit was stopped, depressurised and kept cooled with water. The fire was fought with foam and brought under control two hours later.
The amount of product burned was less than 1 t.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- France
- Date
- Component involved
- flange (generic)
- Failure mode
- rupture & ignition
- Initiating cause
- material degradation (generic)
- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Petrochemical industry
- Sub-application
- Catalytic reforming processes
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
flange of a heat exchanger, catalytic reforming unit
- Location type
- Open
- Location
- industrial area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
The amount of product burned is less than 1 t.
- Emergency action
19:30 The fire broke out. The unit was shutdown and depressurised. Waiting for the complete depressurisation, staff cooled the equipment with water and created a foam pad.
20:30 Firefighters are alerted without a request for intervention.
22:30 Fire under control.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas mixture
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2,
heavy oil - Released amount (kg)
- 11
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- ARIA
- Reference & weblink
ARIA data base
event no. 30221
