Event
- Event ID
- 1161
- Quality
- Description
A release occurred from a high-pressure hydrogen storage vessel at a hydrogen refuelling stations. Immediately after detection, hydrogen was vented out as a safety measure. There was no injury, fatality or property damage.
For the investigation, the vessel was disassembled, and found that there were significant differences in thread length between the plug and the neck, and that the O-ring and the back-up ring had ruptured. The structural analysis for the neck assembly demonstrated that the metal parts were designed with sufficient strength but the force on the back-up ring lead to plastic deformation and rupture.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- leak no ignition
- Macro-region
- Asia
- Country
- South Korea
- Date
- Component involved
- flange (bolts)
- Failure mode
- rupture, no ignition
- Initiating cause
- loss of tightness (wrong operation)
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the rupture of an O-ring.
The ROOT CAUSE was probably related to an installation of the end plug of the vessel which damaged the O-ring.- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/02/2025
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen refuelling station
- Sub-application
- CGH2 stationary storage
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
vessel
- 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
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIT
The high-pressure hydrogen storage vessel had a volume of 487 l
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Property loss (onsite)
- 0
- Post-event summary
The storage vessels hydrogen content was released.
- Emergency action
The vesseel was vented.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The detection and mitigation measure worked as designed.
For the rest, too less is known to draw a lesson learnt.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- News
- Reference & weblink
FCHEA Hydorgen and Fuel cell update September 2022
https://www.hydrogenandfuelcellsafety.info/september-2022#Update1
(accessed January 2025)Kwang Seok Kim, Introduction of the Release Incident at Hydrogen Refueling Station in South Korea, presented at the CHS 2022 CHS Americas Conference, September 20-22 Ca.
(not publicly available)
