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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Leakage at a hydrogen refilling station in a airport

Event

Event ID
1063
Quality
Description

This near miss occurred at an airport's hydrogen refilling station. At 7:35, a hydrogen leak was detected by hearing whistles in the near of a pipe.
The operators warned the airport firefighters ten minutes later. Upon their arrival, the firefighters set up a security perimeter of 150 m around the installation.
The station is located on the border between the public space and the private space and was surrounded by a fence with a gate accessible only by a code unknown to the emergency services. This causes the firefighters the difficulty to pass from one area to another.
Moreover, the airport fuel depot was very close and raised the fear of a possible domino effect in the event of a UVCE (unconfined vapour cloud explosion) or an explosion of the trailer. The airport activity was impacted for 30 minutes, but not air traffic. The emergency services had trouble contacting the airport operator who sent a technician only at the end of the day. The technician locks the shut-off valve of the trailer acting as hydrogen storage at 18:40.
Two days later, a technician precisely located the location of the leak and fixed it.
The operator estimated the quantity of hydrogen released at 5.7 kg.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Unignited Hydrogen Release
Nature of the consequences
leak no ignition
Macro-region
Europe
Country
France
Date
Component involved
dispenser (hose)
Failure mode
rupture, no ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

The INITIATING cause of the leak is the failure of the joint connecting the hydrogen dispenser to the refuelling hose.
A lack of communication between operator and the emergency services hindered the placing of preventing and mitigating measures. Also the access logistic had not been designed to optimise a quick emergency action.

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
01/07/2024

Facility

Application
Hydrogen refuelling station
Sub-application
HRS
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

dispenser, flexible hose

Process temperature range [C]
ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
Location type
Open
Location
airport or airborne
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Property loss (onsite)
0
Post-event summary

The airport activity was impacted for 30 minutes, but not air traffic.

Emergency action

At 7:35 a.m. a hydrogen leak was detected
At 7:45 a.m. the operators warned the airport firefighters which set up a security perimeter of 150 m around the installation.
The airport activity is impacted for 30 minutes, but not air traffic.
The emergency services have trouble contacting the operator who sends a technician at the end of the day. This locks the trailer shut-off valve at 6:40 p.m.
Two days later, a technician precisely located the location of the leak and fixed it

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

GENERAL
The event reveal shortcoming in the logistics and the communications between stakeholders during the emergency.
The design of the access to the installation has to take into account the access of the emergency services.
The risk assessment during the design phase has to take into account possible domino effects resulting from the vicinity of other industrial installation. In this case possibility, the possibility of a domino effect resulting from the vicinity of airport fuel storage had been neglected.

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Release temperature [°C]
25
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
ARIA
Reference & weblink