Event
- Event ID
- 437
- Quality
- Description
- During simultaneous hydrogen venting operations of two hydrogen trailers adjacent to one another, hydrogen was ignited at one, and then the fire ignited the hydrogen venting from the other trailer.
[Ordin, NASA (1974)] - 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?
- Venting System (Line)
- How was it involved?
- Internal Explosion (H2-Air Mixture)
- Initiating cause
- Inadequate Or No Purge
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIATING CAUSE was presence of air in vent line, which formed an air-hydrogen explosive mixture when hydrogen was vented.
The IGNITION of the hydrogen-air mixture ocurred by static charge or impact from contaminants in the vent line. Possible contributing to ignition was an inadequately grounded vent flapper.
ROOT CAUSE of this incident was the simul taneous hydrogen venting from two adjacent trailers which permitted spread of the explosion. A possible inadequat design contributed to air presence in the vent.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 tube trailer
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- vent stack
- Location type
- Open
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- Static electricity
- Ignition delay
- N
References
- Reference & weblink
Mishap no 80 in <br />
P. L. Ordin, Review of hydrogen accidents and incidents in NASA operations, 1974, NASA TM X-71565<br />
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740020344Lowesmith et al., Safety issues of the liquefaction, storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen: An analysis of incidents and HAZIDS, Int. J. Hydrogen energy (2014) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.08.002
Hankinson and Lowesmith, Qualitative Risk Assessment of Hydrogen Liquefaction, Storage and Transportation, FCH JU project IDEALHY, Deliverable 3.10 (2013)<br />
confidential<br />
(accessed October 2025)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ORDIN
