Event
- Event ID
- 20
- Quality
- Description
- A liquid hydrogen tanker was travelling on a higway, when the vacuum guaranteeing the thermal insulation of the tank started to degrade. The increased heat transfer caused a pressure build-up and the rupture of the burst disc.
(R. G. Zalosh and T. P. Short, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FIRE AND EXPLOSION INCIDENTS, Quarterly Report No. 2 for Period December 1, 1977 - February 28, 1978,
COO-4442-2, Factory Mutual Research Corporation, Factory Mutual System, Morwood, Massachusetts 02062) - 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?
- Correct Activation
- Initiating cause
- Over-Pressurisation (Thermal Insulation Degradation)
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIATING CAUSE was the deterioration of the thermal insulation of the cryogenic tank
The ROOT CAUSE unknown.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
- vacuum thermal insulation; 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)
- 660
- Post-event summary
- Zalosh (see references) provides the property damage. The low value of 660 US$ suggests that only a imited part of the load went lost after the rupturing of the burst disc.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The safety measures worked as designed.
The release of cold hydrogen gas trough the vent without ignition confirms the general trend for the transport of liquid hydrogen. The small releases on-the-road, caused by overpressure, very rarely ignite.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- No ignition
References
- Reference & weblink
Table III of Appendix A of Zalosh and Short<br />
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FIRE AND EXPLOSION INCIDENTS<br />
Quarterly Report No. 2 for Period December 1, 1977 - February 28, 1978<br />
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6566131<br />
(accessed September 2020)Event incident I-1971080145 of the PHMSA database (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, 1996),<br />
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages<br />
(accessed September 2024)The PHMSA report does not contain the details reported by Zalosh.
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- Zalosh
