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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire on a CHG2 tube trailer in filling area

Event

Event ID
96
Quality
Description

Safety slug in the vent pipe of a hydrogen trailer failed, damaging the pipe and causing a hydrogen leak. The following fire damaged several other trailers.

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
PRD (generic)
Failure mode
premature activation & venting
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

Despite the lack of details, INITIATING CAUSE was a damage of the safety valve, causing a leak.
The fact that the fire damaged additional trailers hint at a ROOT CAUSE related to a lack of proper risk assessment when designing the operations, which did not consider the possible escalation from too nearly parked trailers without fire barriers.

Root causes
Unknown
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

vent pipe

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
UNKNOWN
Description of the facility/unit/process/substances

The meaning of the term 'safety slug' is unclear. A slug flow, in liquid flow engineering, is a "is a phenomenon that occurs in pipelines carrying gas and liquid mixtures. It involves the intermittent movement of slugs—large pockets of liquid—that can lead to pressure fluctuations, flow disruptions, and potential equipment damage... Slug catchers are specialized devices designed to capture and manage liquid slugs in pipelines." Source: https://www.everyeng.com/blog/ff4ac270)
It can only be hypothesised that a safety slug is a system preventing slug to further block the gas flow in the vent piping. However, why a safety slug would be necessary on a pipe of a hydrogentrailer is unexplicable.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Currency
US$
Property loss (onsite)
100.000

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
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)

Event incident I-1973010239 of the PHMSA database (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, 1996),
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages
(accessed September 2024)