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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Release from a hydrogen compressor in a refinery

Event

Event ID
269
Quality
Description
A hydrogen leak occurred on a makeup gas line of a gas oil hydrotreater unit of a refinery.
The release location was a 1-inch gate valve, which later was found 10% open and with no bull plug. The bull plug was found lying on the ground below the gate valve.
Approximately 133 pounds (60 kg) of makeup hydrogen with a purity of ~97% was released and dispersed without igniting.

When the leak was discovered, the hydrotreater unit shutdown procedures were implemented, and emergency response was requested. Both refinery and the county response teams responded. The shutdown was completed after approximately 1/2 hour. The procedure consisted in depressurising the unit and purging it with nitrogen, to allow the safe closing of the leaking valve and the re-installation of the missing bull plug.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Unignited Hydrogen Release
Nature of the consequences
Leak No Ignition (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
Thermal / Mechanical Fatigue
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
The post-event investigation determined the likely INITATING CAUSE cause of the hydrogen leak was that the gate valve had not been completely closed before the start of the operation of the hydrotreater unit.
A possible scenario for the loss of the valve bull plug was the expansion and contraction during hot and cold cycling of the unit combined with vibration from a nearby reciprocal compressor during the 18 months of operation.
The ROOT CAUSE was shortcoming in maintenance and/or inadequate control of the start of the normal operation.

Facility

Application
Petrochemical Industry
Sub-application
hydrotreatment
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
gate valve, pipe, hydrogen compressor
Location type
Open
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences
The gas oil hydrotreater unit involved in this incident had been recommissioned 18 months earlier after a company ownership change occurred and had undergone recent maintenance and testing prior to activation for operation.
The unit, including the affected valve, had operated at pressure value of 350 psi (24 bar) for at least 36 hours, before the leak started.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
0
Number of fatalities
0
Post-event summary
No injuries, no damage to the gas oil hydrotreater unit, no adverse environmental consequences, no offsite impacts, nor any significant threat to human health.
Emergency action
The CBS does not report it. From video footage at FOX8 it appears that local fire fighters intervened with water cannons.

(https://www.fox8live.com/video/2020/04/10/explosion-valero-meraux-refinery-injures-worker/)

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 97%
Released amount
60 kg
Actual pressure (MPa)
2.4
Design pressure (MPa)
2.4
Presumed ignition source
No ignition
Deflagration
N
High pressure explosion
N
High voltage explosion
N

References

Reference & weblink

Events in database H2TOOLS<br />
https://h2tools.org/lessons/hydrogen-makeup-gas-valve-leak-refinery-gas… />
(accessed December 2025)

JRC assessment