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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion of a tank at hydrogen components manufacturer

Event

Event ID
1083
Quality
Description
The accident happened during testing of a hydrogen tank at a company which manufactured valves and other hydrogen-storage components. A dull bang and a huge pressure wave was felt kilometres away. News report massive damage to the test facility, but a very small fire.
Still according to the news, the most probable cause emerging from the investigation was the over-pressuring of the tank due to an erroneous connection. While the news speak of a connection to a compressed air hose, another source specifies that it has been a 900 bar gas connection to a tank designed for a nominal working pressure of 350 bar. This is the most plausible explanation, by assuming that a pressure test was ongoing, with a inert gas such nitrogen.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
No Hydrogen Release
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Europe
Country
Austria
Date
Main component involved?
Cgh2 Storage Vessel
How was it involved?
Rupture
Initiating cause
Wrong Operation
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING cause was the erroneous connection to a pressurised gas source much higher than the maximal pressure of the tank.
The sources report the company statement that material or component malfunctions could be excluded and that the ROOT CAUSE was a human error.
Due to the lack of details, it is not known if the event was the result of not following the procedures, or if there were shortcoming in the procedures, and therefore both causes are attributed to this event .

Facility

Application
Hydrogen Stationary Storage
Sub-application
CH2 stationary tank
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Storage (No additional details provided)
All components affected
tank
Location type
Confined
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences
The tank was being tested. Since this incident seems to be related to high pressure failure only, and not to fire and chemical explosion, it could be assumed that the gas used for testing was an inert gas.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
1
Number of fatalities
0
Post-event summary
One worker was slightly injured, massive damage to the test facility, a very small fire.

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
air 100%
Actual pressure (MPa)
90
Design pressure (MPa)
35
Presumed ignition source
No release

References

Reference & weblink

ORF news of 13/09/2023 cotnaining a first expnation of causes<br />
https://steiermark.orf.at/stories/3223951/<br />
(accessed Sep 2023)

ORF news of 09/08/2023 cotnaining a first expnation of causes<br />
https://steiermark.orf.at/stories/3219226/<br />
(accessed Sep 2023)

Presentation by the US H2 Centre for Hydrogen Safety, given to the workshop "Gulf Coast Hydrogen Ecosystem: Opportunities and Solutions,” <br />
https://uh.edu/uh-energy-innovation/uh-energy/energy-symposium-series/2… />
(accessed Dec 2024)

JRC assessment