Event
- Event ID
- 437
- Quality
- Description
During simultaneous hydrogen venting operations of two hydrogen trailers adjacent to one another, hydrogen was ignited at one, and then the fire ignited the hydrogen venting from the other trailer.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- -
- Component involved
- venting system (line)
- Failure mode
- internal explosion
- Initiating cause
- inadequate or no purge
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was presence of air in vent line, which formed an air-hydrogen explosive mixture when hydrogen was vented.
The IGNITION of the hydrogen-air mixture occurred by static charge or impact from contaminants in the vent line. Possible contributing to ignition was an inadequately grounded vent flapper.ROOT CAUSE of this incident was the simultaneous hydrogen venting from two adjacent trailers which permitted spread of the explosion. A possible inadequate design contributed to air presence in the vent.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/11/2025
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 tube trailer
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
vent stack
- 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
- unknown
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
- Explosion type
References
- Sources categories
- ORDIN
- Reference & weblink
Mishap no 80 in
P. L. Ordin, Review of hydrogen accidents and incidents in NASA operations, 1974, NASA TM X-71565
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740020344Hankinson and Lowesmith, Qualitative Risk Assessment of Hydrogen Liquefaction, Storage and Transportation, FCH JU project IDEALHY, Deliverable 3.10 (2013)
confidential
(accessed October 2025)Lowesmith et al., Safety issues of the liquefaction, storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen: An analysis of incidents and HAZIDS, Int. J. Hydrogen energy (2014) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.08.002
