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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire on the methanation unit of a refinery

Event

Event ID
827
Quality
Description

In a petrochemical plant, a fire occurred on the methanation unit (95% H2 + 5% CO -> CH4 + H2 + H2O) of a steam cracker. A seal break on a flange of the circuit caused of the accident. No casualties were reported. The internal operational plan was started.

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 (gasket)
Failure mode
rupture
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

INITIATING CAUSE: a seal break on a flange of the circuit.

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
01/01/2020

Facility

Application
Petrochemical industry
Sub-application
steam cracking unit
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Process temperature range [C]
unknown
Process pressure range [MPa]
unknown
Location type
Open
Location
industrial area
Operational condition
Description of the facility/unit/process/substances

The description of the plant and the unit affected is somehow contradictory.
A steam cracker is a petrochemical process which breaks down saturated hydrocarbons into smaller, often unsaturated, hydrocarbons. It is the principal industrial method for producing the lighter alkenes (commonly called olefins), including ethene (or ethylene) and propene (or propylene). Its feedstock can be naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), ethane, propane or butane.
The main unit of a steam cracker is a furnace which make the steam reacting with the feedstock up to  very high temperature of 850C. At the end of the process, de-methanizer towers separate hydrogen and methane in in the cracked gas stream. Cryogenically (−250 °F (−157 °C)) treating this overhead stream separates hydrogen from methane. Methane recovery is critical to the economical operation of an ethylene plant.
[Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_cracking#]

Therefore, in a steam cracking plant, there is no methanisation reaction, as mentioned in the ARIA report, but  a demethanisation step, basically a gas treatment tower. 

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Post-event summary

No casualties were reported.

Emergency action

The internal operational plan was initiated.

In-depth data

Release type
gas mixture
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 COCH4
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
ARIA
Reference & weblink

ARIA data base event no. 2174