Event
- Event ID
- 1163
- Quality
- Description
- A fire occurred at a hydrogen refuelling station for buses. The incident was initially reported as an explosion due to a loud noise and vibrations felt in nearby buildings. However, subsequent investigations clarified that the fire resulted from a hydrogen venting through a safety valve of the station hydrogen storage. The fire was extinguished within approximately 50 minutes, and no casualties were reported. Some damage occurred to the roof of the storage building.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Fire (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- Asia
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Prd (Valve)
- How was it involved?
- Premature Activation
- Initiating cause
- Unknown
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIATING CAUSE of the fire was a hydrogen venting through the safety valve.
The ROOT CAUSE is unknown.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Refuelling Station
- Sub-application
- CHG2 storage
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Storage (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- safety valve
- Location type
- Semiconfined
- Operational condition
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
- DESCRIPTION OF THE FACILITY
HRS compression and storage capacity of 180 kg/h with two refueling lines providing 90 kg/h each. designed for commercial vehicles like trucks and buses (https://fuelcellsworks.com/2024/10/14/fuel-cells/korea-busan-new-port-completes-first-hydrogen-refueling-station-for-cargo-trucks).
From the pictures of the YTN video, the station storage system seems to consist in hydrogen tube trailers, wit the typical vent system for each of the tube releasing hydrogen inside the building. Another type of longer tubes is visible aswell.
The building appears to be only partially covered by a roof. storage pressure is unknown (possiblyaround 40 MPa), the hydrogen inventory, the safety systems in place.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Property loss (onsite)
- low
- Post-event summary
- Some damage to the roof structure is visible.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Collection of news<br />
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/01/16/korean-hydrogen-explosions-leaks-a… />
https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/transport/safety-concerns-grow-after-tw… />
https://m.ytn.co.kr/en/news_view.amp.php?param=0115_202412272305332906<… />
(accessed January 2025)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- News