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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire in a plant producing electronics components

Event

Event ID
36
Quality
Description

The hydrogen release of a defect valve on the hydrogen supply line ignited due to an unknown cause. The fire caused the melting of soldered joint with consequence additional release of hydrogen at 6.2 bar, which contributed the fire.
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?
Valve (Generic)
How was it involved?
Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
Initiating cause
Unknown
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was a defective component: a valve was reported as closed, but it was leaking.

The ROOT CAUSE is unknown.

Facility

Application
Electronics And Micro-Electronics
Sub-application
electrical & electronic products
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
valve, soldered joint
Location type
Unknown
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
0
Number of fatalities
0
Environmental damage
0
Currency
US$
Property loss (onsite)
5500
Property loss (offsite)
0
Post-event summary
No injuries, 5500 $ material losses

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Release duration
unknown
Actual pressure (MPa)
0.6
Design pressure (MPa)
0.6
Presumed ignition source
Not reported
Flame type
Other

References

Reference & weblink

Table II 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)

JRC assessment