Event
- Event ID
- 261
- Quality
- Description
- While driving on a highway, the driver of a CGH2 tube trailer was notified by another driver of the smoke coming from his trailer. The CGH2 tube trailer parked in a place considered safe, inspected the trailer and found the sides hot. After having called the emergency services, he unhooked the tractor from the trailer and moved the tractor away from the trailer. At this time, the first police officer arrived. The hazmat contractor in charge of the clean up arrived more than 3 hours later. Throughout all this time, it is assumed that the fire continued, but the report mentions only the contamination of the ground due to the exposure of the steel containment floor of the trailer to the fire. The trailer was disposed, probably because very damaged. No cause reported.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Fire (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Valve (Generic)
- How was it involved?
- Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
- Initiating cause
- Unknown
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 tube trailer
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- unknown
- Location type
- Open
- Operational condition
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
- The nominal pressure is not povided. Nevertheless, from the website of the trailer manufacturer, it can be assumed that the trailer was carrying type I steel tubes wtih a nominal pressure of 180 bar
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 714000
- Property loss (offsite)
- 0
- Emergency action
- As a precaution, emergency crews evacuated the immediate area. A team from the trailer company was dispatched to the scene. Before up-righting the trailer, they vented the remaining hydrogen through the vent stack and purged the tubes with nitrogen. There was no fire.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Actual pressure (MPa)
- 18
- Design pressure (MPa)
- 18
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Incident I-1997110950 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA (multiple reports because of more gases, but no pdf report): <br />
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%… />
(accessed September 2024)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
