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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion at a refractory metals manufacturing plant

Event

Event ID
1022
Quality
Description
An explosion took place at a tungsten manufacturing facility, resulting in injuries to four employees and one contractor working in the area. Online news reported the failure and exploison of a hydrogen tank
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
North America
Country
United States
Date
Main component involved?
Cgh2 Storage Vessel
How was it involved?
Rupture & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
Initiating cause
Unknown
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Facility

Application
Steel And Metals Industry
Sub-application
tungsten processing
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Storage (No additional details provided)
All components affected
hydtoen storage tank
Location type
Unknown
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
5
Number of fatalities
0
Post-event summary
Unknown. The news mention that both company workers & contractors were among the injured.

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

Unknown (years after the incident date, the result of the investigation has not been published)

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Presumed ignition source
Not reported

References

Reference & weblink

Oline news at "WENY news":<br />
https://www.weny.com/story/46341587/reported-explosion-at-towanda-manuf… />
(accessed April 2025)

Oline news at "WENY news":<br />
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&… />
(accessed April 2025)

JRC assessment