Event
- Event ID
- 370
- Quality
- Description
- A liquid hydrogen tanker was preparing to transfer hydrogen to a stationary tank belonging to a manufacturing facility. The tanker was being pressurised before transfer, when a burst disc failed prematurely. The hydrogen ignited at the vent stack. The fire lasted approximately one hour. The emergency responders decided to evacuate the manufacturing facility and a nearby bowling alley.
The bursting disc was one of two pressure relief devices protecting the tanker from over-pressurisation. In this sense, even if it failed prematurely, it resulted in a safe situation, with the hydrogen venting via the vent stack and the tank reducing internal pressure.
The disc was rated for 210 psig (14.5) but failed prematurely at approximately 145 psig (ca. 11 bar). - 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
- Unknown
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIAL CAUSE was the premature failure of a burst disc.
In absence of the results of an post-incident investigation, it is impossible to attribute a ROOT CAUSE which could be related to material ageing, or to wrong installation or to a wrong choice of materials.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transfer (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- burst disc
- Location type
- Open
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 1500
- Property loss (offsite)
- 0
- Post-event summary
- A negligible amount of hydrogen was released.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The safety system worked as expected. The tank was equipped with two independent pressure relief devices, protecting the trailer tank from over-pressurisation. Even if one of the two burst discs failed prematurely, it resulted in a safe situation, with the hydrogen venting via the vent stack and the tank reducing internal pressure.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount
- 16.8
- Actual pressure (MPa)
- 1.1
- Design pressure (MPa)
- 1.45
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Incident I-1995040335 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA: <br />
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%… />
(accessed September 2024)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
