Event
- Event ID
- 541
- Quality
- Description
A road tanker was being loaded with liquid hydrogen from a 15,000 gallon storage tank, when fire broke out after 1 inch rupture disc failed, ignition source was a loose connection in down stream piping. The ignition was not immediate after rupture.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- PRD (burst disc)
- Failure mode
- premature activation & venting
- Initiating cause
- unknown
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the opening of a burst disc.
IGNITION SOURE was a loose connection in the vent pipe (the report is unclear, probably a spark was attributed to this loose connection).The report does not explicitly states that the disc failed before the set nominal pressure, but it can be assumed so, because the tank was still being filled. The ROOT CAUSE is nevertheless unknown.
- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
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
- Unknown
- Location
- unknown
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
The tank was being loaded.
The storage quantity given here represents to total quantity in the stationary storage from which the tanker was being loaded.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
No , because the report does not provide the details required for a conclusion on the causes.
Case 1: the burst disc opened at the set nominal pressure: the tank had been overfilled, ROOT CAUSE = wrong operation.
Case 2: the burst failed prematurely ROOT CAUSE = disc material/component failure or installation failure
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- News
- Reference & weblink
This event was reported in HIAD 1.0 and referenced as from NFPA, 06663.
