Event
- Event ID
- 528
- Quality
- Description
- The incident started at the unit removing CO2 from the process gas stream of a hydrocracking facility. (Catalysed Removal of Carbon Dioxide = Catacarb). Localized corrosion caused a pipe to fail and dumped the Catacarb from the unit and then hydrogen was released and ignited.
The fire lasted approximately 10 minutes.
The unit was shutdown, resulting in loss of the supply of Catacarb. - 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?
- Pipe
- How was it involved?
- Rupture & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
- Initiating cause
- Material Degradation (Internal Corrosion / Erosion)
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- Localized corrosion caused the failure of a pipe. The Catacarb was dumped from the unit. Hydrogen was released and ignited.
Facility
- Application
- Petrochemical Industry
- Sub-application
- Hydrocracking process
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
- Catacarb reactor
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Post-event summary
- The fire lasted approximately 10 minutes.
The unit was shutdown, resulting in loss of the supply of Catacarb.
Smoke visible offsite.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Snapshot from the site of the Major Accidents at Chemical/Refinery Plants in Contra Costa County<br />
https://www.cchealth.org/health-and-safety-information/hazmat-programs/… />
(accessed January 2025)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- News
