Event
- Event ID
- 245
- Quality
- Description
- A tank of liquefied hydrogen felt down in a chemical plant.
The tank, containing 100 m³ of liquid hydrogen, was installed on a concrete plate, which failed. The hydrogen started leaking from the valve at the bottom of the tank.
The operator declared the state of emergency and installed a safety perimeter. The emergency responders used a resin to close the leak, after which they defrosted and closed the valve. - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Leak No Ignition (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- France
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Valve (Cryogenic)
- How was it involved?
- Leak
- Initiating cause
- Impact, Rollover, Crash
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
Facility
- Application
- Chemical Industry
- Sub-application
- Inorganic chemicals products
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Storage (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- Liquid hydroge nstorage
- Location type
- Confined
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Emergency action
- The highway was closed to traffic for 8 hours. To reduce the risk of further explosions, the fire-brigade cooled the gas cylinders with water for two hours.
Due to the absence of near water sources, a long water hose had to be connected to a source in the nearest town.
Event Nature
- Release type
- Liquid
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- No ignition
References
- Reference & weblink
Event description in the French database ARIA<br />
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/10969/<br />
(accessed October 2020)<br />
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ARIA
