Event
- Event ID
- 355
- Quality
- Description
- A continuous venting of hydrogen from a LH2 tanker occurred during highway transportation. Trailer delivered at test site and vacuum pressure checked to be less than 1 micron. The tank pressure was 50 psig (ca. 3.5 bar). Attempts were made to stop the venting by thawing the manual vent valve; also, the burst disc was nearly frosted.
Eventually, the LH2 was transferred and the external piping warmed with water. The rupture disc was replaced.
The loss was about 3886 gallons (ca 14710 l = ca. 1 t of hydrogen).
[Ordin, NASA (1974)] - 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?
- Prd (Burst Disc)
- How was it involved?
- Premature Activation
- Initiating cause
- Material Degradation (Generic)
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The rupture disc had a number of holes but was not completely blown out. The leak probably existed throughout the entire trip.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- burst disc
- Location type
- Open
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 15000
- Post-event summary
- A loss of 1000 kg of hydrogen. Assuming a cost of hydrogen of 12 to 15 US$, an order of magnitude of the propoerty total loss could be estimated.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release duration
- unknown
- Released amount
- 1000
- Actual pressure (MPa)
- 0.35
- Design pressure (MPa)
- 0.35
- Presumed ignition source
- No ignition
References
- Reference & weblink
Mishap no 3 in <br />
P. L. Ordin, Review of hydrogen accidents and incidents in NASA operations, 1974, NASA TM X-71565<br />
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740020344
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ORDIN
