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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Small release from a LH2 tanker

Event

Event ID
1121
Quality
Description

A LH2 trailer/truck were travelling on a highway when they noticed vapour coming from the trailer cabinet. They exited the highway, parked and opened the trailer cabinet. They found that a nut had vibrated loose on a packing valve. They tightened the bolt and the leak stopped.

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
valve (generic)
Failure mode
rupture, no ignition
Initiating cause
loss of tightness (road vibrations)
Root CAUSE analysis

The INITIAL CAUSE was a leak from a packing valve due to a loose nut.
The ROOT CAUSE is related to the vibration which had caused the component to become loose, and probably also to the improper fixing of the nut during installation.

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
09/09/2024

Facility

Application
Hydrogen transport and distribution
Sub-application
LH2 tanker
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

Bolts or Nuts

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

Emergency & Consequences

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

None

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Released amount (kg)
0.26816805450416
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
PHMSA
Reference & weblink

Incident E-2008070338 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA:
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%…
(accessed September 2024)