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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire on a CGH2 bottles truck

Event

Event ID
199
Quality
Description

A truck loaded with 400 hydrogen bottles crashed into a concrete barrier and tipped over. After tipping over, the vehicle slid about 150 meters across the road. The hydrogen was released, ignited producing an explosion and eventually involving the tractor in the fire.
Around 50 firefighters were busy extinguishing the fire for two hours. To reduce the risk of explosion, the fire brigade cooled the gas bottles with extinguishing water at the scene of the fire. The motorway was closed for around eight hours.

The driver's cab burned out completely in the accident. The damage to the vehicle to 200,000 euros, without counting the damage to the highway surface

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Europe
Country
Germany
Date
Component involved
valve (generic)
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
impact, rollover, crash
Root CAUSE analysis

The INITIATING CAUSE was the crash of the vehicle against a concrete barrier.

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
08/12/2024

Facility

Application
Hydrogen transport and distribution
Sub-application
CGH2 cylinders truck
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

cylinders

Process temperature range [C]
ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
Process pressure range [MPa]
medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
Location type
Open
Location
highway or similar
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences

The trailer was transporting 400 bottles. The report mention 200 -l bottles. By looking at the picture, the bottles appear standard 50 litre, 200 bar bottles. Assuming they were all full, it give a total hydrogen inventory of approximately 290 kg.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
1
Currency
Euro
Property loss (onsite)
200.000
Post-event summary

The driver's cab burned out completely in the accident. The damage to the vehicle to 200,000 euros, without counting the damage to the highway surface

Emergency action

The fire the highway triggered a major fire service emergency operation. Around 50 firefighters were busy extinguishing the fire for two hours. To reduce the risk of explosion, the fire brigade cooled the gas bottles with extinguishing water at the scene of the fire. As there was not enough water at the scene of the accident, water hoses were laid over several hundred meters.
The motorway was closed for around eight hours.

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Released amount (kg)
290
Release temperature [°C]
25
Release pressure [MPa]
20
Probable IGNITION SOURCE
Explosion type

References

Sources categories
News
Reference & weblink