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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Event

Event ID
814
Quality
Description

Follow a leak in a seal of a heat exchanger (metal-covered asbestos) a fire occurred in a reforming process.
The hydrogen-rich mixture caused spontaneous ignition. The fire lasted 30 minutes.
The accident followed a series of various start / stops.

An annealing treatment had to be carried out on 2 points that had been watered during the incident.

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
heat exchanger (generic)
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
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

heat exchanger

Location type
Open
Location
industrial area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

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

An annealing treatment had to be carried out on 2 points that had been watered during the incident.

Emergency action

The fire lasted 30 minutes. The accident was a consecutive series of start / stops.

In-depth data

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

References

Sources categories
ARIA
Reference & weblink

ARIA data base event no. 26619
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/26619/
(accessed October 2025)