Event
- Event ID
- 570
- Quality
- Description
- The fire was due to the rupture of a tube in a hydrogen heater (heat exchanger).
[Zalosh and Short, 1978] - 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?
- Heat Exchanger (Pipe)
- How was it involved?
- Rupture & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
- Initiating cause
- Material Degradation (Generic)
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
Facility
- Application
- Petrochemical Industry
- Sub-application
- unspecified
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Location type
- Confined
- Location description
- Unknown
- Operational condition
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 500000
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
- Rupture of hydrogen or process gases tubes in pre-heaters /heat-exchangers / fired heaters is a recurrent event up to recent times. This is not surprising, considering the high temperatures and pressures involved. The most common causes are materials degradations due to manufacturing defects and operative stresses. Ruptures tend to happen during operative transients, which may cause over-heating due to reduction of flows. When the releases occur also in presence of naked flames, as in fired heaters, which use conventional fuels burners, ignition and explosion in the confined of the heater box is ensured. Nevertheless, due to sturdy heater constructions, it rarely happens that damage extends to the outside environment.
Event Nature
- Ignition delay
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Table II - Industrial Incidetns of Appendix A of Zalosh and Short<br />
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FIRE AND EXPLOSION INCIDENTS<br />
Quarterly Report No. 2 for Period December 1, 1977 - February 28, 1978<br />
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6566131<br />
(accessed September 2020)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- Zalosh
