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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire in a refinery

Event

Event ID
190
Quality
Description
An explosion followed by a fire occurs in a refinery, originated by a hydrogen release at the hydrogen compressor.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
North America
Country
United States
Date
Main component involved?
Compressor / Booster / Pump
How was it involved?
Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
Initiating cause
Unknown
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Facility

Application
Petrochemical Industry
Sub-application
Generic refinery process
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Compression (No additional details provided)
All components affected
hydrogen compressor
Location type
Unknown
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
3
Number of fatalities
0
Official legal action
OSHA performed investigations on the incident, but it is not available on the OHSA website.
Emergency action
The fire brigade decided for an emergency zone of 200 m. Workers of 20 companies were evacuated.
The traffic on neighbouring roads stopped.

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Presumed ignition source
Not reported

References

Reference & weblink

Event description no 21760 in the French database ARIA (accessed October 2021)

JRC assessment