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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire from a CGH2 tube trailer just loaded

Event

Event ID
224
Quality
Description
A compressed hydrogen tube trailer was fully loaded and parked, when a rupture disc on one of the tubes failed. The escaping hydrogen ignited.
9583 cu ft (approximately 23 kg) of hydrogen were released.

[Zalosh and Short, 1978]
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Fire (No additional details provided)
Macro-region
North America
Country
United States
Date
Main component involved?
Prd (Burst Disc)
How was it involved?
Premature Activation
Initiating cause
Material Degradation (Generic)
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the premature opening of the burst disc.
The ROOT CAUSE is unknown, because it is unknown if the disc failed due to lack of maintenance, wrong installation or wrong material choice.

Facility

Application
Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
Sub-application
CGH2 tube trailer
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
All components affected
burst disc
Location type
Open
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences
Assuming that the trailer was consisting of 10 tubes, the total transported quantity was approximately 230 kg.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
0
Number of fatalities
0
Currency
US$
Property loss (onsite)
0
Property loss (offsite)
0

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Released amount
22.75406686
Presumed ignition source
Not reported

References

Reference & weblink

Extract from Table III of Appendix A of Zalosh and Short<br />
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FIRE AND EXPLOSION INCIDENTS<br />
Quarterly Report No. 2 for Period December 1, 1977 - February 28, 1978<br />
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6566131<br />
(accessed September 2020)

References\Zalosh and Short 1978 Quarterly 2 Table III.pdf

JRC assessment