Event
- Event ID
- 62
- Quality
- Description
A tanker was returning to the base after delivery of liquid hydrogen at a space centre. The driver tanker noticed a small plume at the rear of the track. He pulled off at the next exit and found that the manual vent valve was open due to road vibration. The valve was tightened and no further incident occurred during the remainder of the trip. Later it was determined that the valve did not have any problem an dthe tanker was returned to service.
- 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
- flange (bolts)
- Failure mode
- leak, no ignition
- Initiating cause
- loss of tightness (road vibrations)
- Root CAUSE analysis
INITIAL CAUSE was the opening the manual vent valve due to vibration.
The ROOT CAUSE was probably a design which did not took into account the whole range of mechanical solicitations which the pressure control system of the tanker could experiment when travelling.- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 31/12/2024
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
valve
- 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)
- 450
- Post-event summary
0.3 kg hydrogen lost reported
- Emergency action
The driver closed the valve.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
This incident is very similar to other, such as the HIAD_070, which attributed to road vibrations the opening of the vapour return valve.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount (kg)
- 0.3
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
- Reference & weblink
Event incident I-1991020367 of the PHMSA database (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, 1996),
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages
(accessed September 2024)
