Skip to main content
Clean Hydrogen Partnership

A leak of hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulphide from a pipe in a refinery

Event

Event ID
851
Quality
Description
The leak occurred on a process pipe of a pressurized at 17 bar and located 3.5 m from the ground The gaseous mixture composed of hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulphide (density: 0.6) was released to the atmosphere.
The operator evacuated a hundred employees, stopped production and put the establishment in the safe mode.
The emergency plan is triggered. Water curtains are put into action and measurements of toxicity and explosimetry are carried out.
After a hour the pressure in the pipe reduced 0.5 bar and the measurements of toxicity and explosimetry in the ambient air returned to satisfactory level. The emergency plan was terminated.
Public firefighters are on site but did not intervene.
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
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Facility

Application
Petrochemical Industry
Sub-application
Generic refinery process
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
pressurised gas process pipe (17 bar) located 3.5 m from the ground
Location type
Open
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
0
Number of fatalities
0

Event Nature

Release type
gas mixture
Involved substances (% vol)
H2,
CH4,
H2S
Actual pressure (MPa)
1.7
Design pressure (MPa)
1.7
Presumed ignition source
No ignition

References

Reference & weblink

ARIA data base <br />
event no. 39045

JRC assessment