Event
- Event ID
- 1123
- Quality
- Description
- A trailer-tractor carrying liquid hydrogen had been parked nearly 36 hours when the rupture disc blew. This resulted in a hydrogen plume which ignited. The fire continued until it ran out of fuel.
[Note of HIAD Validator: considering the little amount of LH2 declared as lost, it could be concluded that the trailer was almost empty.] - 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 (Valve)
- How was it involved?
- Correct Activation
- Initiating cause
- Over-Pressurisation (Boil-Off)
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIAL CAUSE was the opening of the burst disc due to internal over-pressure
The ROOT CAUSE was probably no respecting the procedures. It is to be expected that after three days the heat flow through the thermal insulation of a LH2 cryogenic vessel will begin to heat the liquid, increasing evaporation and internal pressure.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- burst disc
- Location type
- Open
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
- The trailer had been parked for 36 hours.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 0
- Property loss (offsite)
- 0
- Post-event summary
- No injury, only a loss of hydrogen (17 kg)
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount
- 17.430923542771
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Incident E-2011060224 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
