Event
- Event ID
- 171
- Quality
- Description
A LH2 road transporter experienced a fire on a rear tire. The driver tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the fire out with the on-board fire extinguisher, then he called the 911 and disconnected the tractor from the trailer. The local fire-fighter team arrived, closed the highway and started to extinguish the fire. At this point the rupture disc opened due to high pressure built up insider the LH2 trailer, releasing hydrogen gas into the atmosphere. The hydrogen did not ignite. Approximately 35 kg were released. The emergency lasted two hours.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- leak no ignition
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- PRD (burst disc)
- Failure mode
- correct activation & venting
- Initiating cause
- conventional component failure (fire-tyres)
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIAL CAUSE and the ROOT CAUSE were a conventional fire on a truck tyre, which increased the temperature and consequently the pressure of the LH2 tank. The pressure control system of the trailer functioned as expected. Although not described in detail, the fire fighting strategy appears having been successful, because the emergency lasted only two hours.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 19/09/2024
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
burst disc
- Process temperature range [C]
- cryogenic temperature (below -50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- low to medium pressure (below 2 MPa)
- Location type
- Open
- Location
- highway or similar
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
A tyre fire had started on a rear wheel.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 101.500
- Post-event summary
Approximately 35 kg were released.
- Emergency action
The interstate highway was closed for two hours following the accident. The fire fighting had only to fight the conventional tyre fire. It is unknown how the trailer/tractor restarted the travel. It is probably that it was left to vent completely. From the amount of hydrogen released declared, it could be also deduced that the trailer was almost empty.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount (kg)
- 453.592
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
- Reference & weblink
Incident E-2007080143 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA: https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%2Fshared%2FPublic%20Website%20Pages%2F_portal%2FHazmat%20Incident%20Report%20Search (accessed September 2024)
