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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion in an industrial gas plant

Event

Event ID
97
Quality
Description
Works at the power grid of a hydrogen production unit were at the origin of the following accedental sequence:
1. Fusion of a safe fuse triggering the closure of a valve on the manifold of a pistons compressor, whose function was to raise the pressure from 50 mbar at the exit of the gasometer to 250 bar.
2. As a consequence of the closure of the valve, the dome of the gasometer filled with hydrogen up to the maximal level, after which the regulation valve of the storage system closed.
3. At this moment, a zone of under-pressure at the aspiration pipe of the compressor, causing the suction of air from outside, which formed with hydrogen an explosive mixture which auto-ignited.
4. The explosion caused the failure of the pressurised system: two pressure vessels, pipes and other parts of the plant were largely damaged, including the brick building hosting the unit.
5. Three plant keepers, which were in the near building, were seriously injured by an iron pieces breaking into the building.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Europe
Country
Germany
Date
Main component involved?
Compressor / Booster / Pump (Valve)
How was it involved?
Internal Explosion (H2-Air Mixture)
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
Human failure during repair works that led to the malfunctioning of the hydrogen-high pressure condenser.

Facility

Application
Chemical Industry
Sub-application
industrial gases production plant
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Compression (No additional details provided)
All components affected
pressure condenser, pipe, water trap, plastic tube, hydrogen production unit, hydrogen compressor,
Location type
Semiconfined
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences
Works were executed at the power grid of the of the installation.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
2
Number of fatalities
0
Post-event summary
Two plant keepers, which were in the near building, were seriously injured by an iron pieces breaking into the building.
More than 3 MEuro of material damage.
Emergency action
The system was shut down followed by an on site investigation an hour later.

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt
reported by the referred source states: "The building of the compressor plant has to be remade in light structure (design change)."

It seems a rather limited conclusion, focussing to mitigate the consequence of similar accidents.

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Presumed ignition source
Auto-ignition

References

Reference & weblink

Original event description in eMARS

Event from German database ZEMA<br />
https://www.infosis.uba.de/index.php/de/site/12981/zema/index/2911.html… />
(accessed December 2023)

JRC assessment