Event
- Event ID
- 854
- Quality
- Description
- Two employees were performing works on hydrogen piping (H2) in the chlorate production unit of a chemical plant when an ignited leak of H2 occurred.
The operator initiated the emergency plan and stopped the workshop activity while the operational team managed the leak in a short time (a couple of minutes).
There was no victim, no damage to the environment. - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Fire (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- France
- Date
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
- Root CAUSE analysis
- It is logic to assume that the INITIATING CAUSE was works performed on the hydrogen piping.
Nothing can be said on the ROOT CAUSE.
Facility
- Application
- Chemical Industry
- Sub-application
- Chlorate production
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
- hydrogen piping
- Location type
- Open
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
- Works were ongoing on the hydrogen pipeline
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
- DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS
Sodium chlorate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula NaClO3.
Sodium chlorate is produced industrially by electrolysis of concentrated sodium chloride solutions:
NaCl + 3 H2O → NaClO3 + 3 H2
Sodium chlorate is used as a non-selective herbicide.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Post-event summary
- There was no victim, no damage to the environment.
- Official legal action
- A press release was distributed.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
ARIA data base <br />
event no. 40267
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ARIA
