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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion and fire in a desulphurisation unit of a refinery

Event

Event ID
645
Quality
Description
An explosion and fire broke out at a heavy oil direct desulfurization unit at a refinery. The location of the explosion was approximately at 20 meters height.
The fire burned within a radius of approximately 30 meters on a portion of the refinery site, which covered approximately 15,000 m².

The fire was extinguished approximately 10 hours later. The refinery stopped the supply of heavy oil and the 1,000 kl of heavy oil and hydrogen remaining in the equipment was left to burn out. The fire department intervened attempting to extinguish the fire by injecting nitrogen into the piping.
According to the refinery, prior to the explosion, multiple gas detectors detected an abnormality in an area containing a high-temperature, high-pressure separation tank, which separates heavy oil from gas, and staff were on their way to inspect it.
(translation from Japanese by means of Google Translate)
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Asia
Country
Japan
Date
Main component involved?
Reactor / Oven / Furnace / Test Chamber
How was it involved?
Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Oil-Air Mixture
Initiating cause
Unknown
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Facility

Application
Petrochemical Industry
Sub-application
desulphurisation unit
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
separation tank
Location type
Open
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
0
Number of fatalities
0

Event Nature

Release type
gas mixture
Involved substances (% vol)
H2
heavy oil
Release duration
unknown
Presumed ignition source
Not reported

References

Reference & weblink

Journal of Japan Society for Safety Engineering,Vol.42(2),p.117(2003)<br />
In Japanese, available at:<br />
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/safety/42/2/42_117/_pdf/-char/en<br />

Journal of Japan Society for Safety Engineering,Vol.42(2),p.117(2003) <br />
Google translate

JRC assessment