Event
- Event ID
- 219
- Quality
- Description
A compressed hydrogen tube trailer was fully loaded and parked in the sun. The heat caused a pressure build-up, so that a burst disc failed prematurely venting hydrogen, which ignited.
13,360 cu ft (approximately 32 kg) of hydrogen were released.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- TPRD
- Failure mode
- premature activation & venting
- Initiating cause
- over-heating
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the premature failure of the burst dis.
A CONTRIBUTING CAUSE was the increase of hydrogen pressure in the tubes of the trailer caused by heat flow from direct sun exposure
The fact that the a common environmental condition such as sun exposure was enough to cause a disc to one, suggests CONTIBUTING or ROOT CAUSE possibly related to (i) not fully respecting operative instructions , or (ii) lack of attention to the over-heating aspects in the operative instructions (shortcoming in accidental scenarios setting and risk assessment).- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 20/01/2025
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 tube trailer
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
burst disc
- 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
- industrial area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 0
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The safety procedure (automatic pressure-relief due to over-pressurisation) worked as designed, preventing the pressure inside the tubes to increase beyond the maximal allowed values.
Although the source does not provide any detail, the fact that only 32 kg of hydrogen were released suggests that only one of the tube vented and emptied, while the others did not experienced a pressure excess. (30-35 kg is the usual capacity of a steel tube used typically for the transport of hydrogen in the period when the event occurred).
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount (kg)
- 32
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- Zalosh
- Reference & weblink
Extract from Table III of Appendix A of Zalosh and Short
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FIRE AND EXPLOSION INCIDENTS
Quarterly Report No. 2 for Period December 1, 1977 - February 28, 1978
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6566131
(accessed September 2020)Incident I-1975110755 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA:
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%…
(accessed September 2024)