Event
- Event ID
- 941
- Quality
- Description
- A small hydrogen leak occurred at the connection between the hose and the tube trailer, which was being loaded at an industrial gas company. Alerted by the noise, the driver of the vehicle gave the alert.
Firefighters from the petrochemical platform to which the plant belongs stopped the leak by closing the manual valves on the tank.
The tank, initially at 200 bar, lost only 10 bar in 3h30. Therefore, the site's sensors did not activate because of the small size of the leak. - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Leak No Ignition (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- France
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Joint/Connection (Hose)
- How was it involved?
- Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
- Initiating cause
- Unknown
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 tube trailer
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transfer (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- unclear if liquid or compressed tanker
- Location type
- Open
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
- The near miss occurred during hydrogen tank truck loading
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Post-event summary
- 10 bar lost in a 220 bar tank in 3 hours 30 minutes
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The lack on details on tank, the loading operation and the position of the hydrogen detectors does not allow for a specific lesson learnt. The fact that the detector did not spotted the leak because too small, demonstrates the importance of a careful placement of the detection system.
Under other circumstances (confined space), a small, undetected leak can be the source of a potentially great hazard.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Actual pressure (MPa)
- 20
- Design pressure (MPa)
- 20
- Presumed ignition source
- No ignition
References
- Reference & weblink
Event description in the French database ARIA<br />
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/42107/<br />
(accessed October 2020)<br />
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ARIA
