Over-pressurisation of a LH2 tanker

Event

Event ID: 63
Quality: 3
Description: A liquid hydrogen tanker was returning almost empty to the base terminal. The drivers noted a pressure rise in the tanker stopped at a remote area of a rest area and performed a controlled venting.
It was determined they had not properly stabilised the tank internal pressure before leaving the customer site. The vehicle was thoroughly inspected prior to its next dispatch.
Event Initiating system: Hydrogen System Initiating Event
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: 26/07/1990
Main component involved?: Lh2 Tanker
How was it involved?: Manual Venting
Initiating cause: Over-Pressurisation (Wrong Operation)
Root causes: Human Factors
Root CAUSE analysis: INITIAL CAUSE was over-pressurisation of the tank during the journey.
The ROOT CAUSE was the failing to successfully perform stabilisation of the tank after delivery.

Application: Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
Sub-application: LH2 tanker
Hydrogen supply chain stage: Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
All components affected: over-pressure
Location type: Open
Operational condition: Normal
Pre-event occurrences: The tank stabilisation procedure had not been performed properly after the transfer of the liquid hydrogen.

Reference & weblink: Event incident ID I-1990080589 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)