Event
- Event ID
- 953
- Quality
- Description
A leak occurred at a compressor of a hydrogen refuelling station, Rescue services were alerted and the station's activity is interrupted. The leak was stopped by closing valves. The station had a storage system consisting of ten cryogenic tanks for a total of 6,000 litres of liquid hydrogen.The filling of FCEV was occurring via a high-pressure hydrogen tank fed by a compressor bringing the 4 bar hydrogen from the liquid hydrogen storage tanks up to the 380 bar. Just before the leak, a vehicle fill had depleted the compressed hydrogen tank. Therefore, the compressor turned on to refill the storage. After running about 2 hours, a crankshaft bearing started to fail. This allowed greater movement of the shaft, which led to a shaft seal leaking hydrogen. The compressor shut down on low suction pressure and then the system was shut down using the e-stop by the emergency responders.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- release, no ignition
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- compressor / booster / pump (seal)
- Failure mode
- rupture
- Initiating cause
- material degradation (over-stress)
- Root CAUSE analysis
INITIATING cause was a deterioration of a component of a hydrogen compressor.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2018
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen refuelling station
- Sub-application
- HRS 35 MPa
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
H2 compressor
- 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
- populated area
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
A vehicle had just refuelled, causing the need to top up the high pressure storage tank.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
No consequence.
- Emergency action
The compressor stopped on suction low pressure signal.
Lesson Learnt
- Corrective Measures
According to the H2Tools report (see references), the corrective action consisted in adding a gas detector in close proximity to the compressor shaft. Preventing measure to predict bearing failure were also considered, such as a vibration switch. In addition, the manufacturer was contacted and the bearing design analysed for possible improvements).
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- ARIA
- Reference & weblink
Event description in the French database ARIA https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/37528/ (accessed October 2020)
Event description in the US database H2Tools/Lesson Learned https://h2tools.org/lessons/leak-compressor-fueling-station (accessed October 2020)
