Skip to main content
Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Hydrogen fire in a alcohols production plant

Event

Event ID
905
Quality
Description
The fire occurred after a hydrogen released from a venting valve opened for inspection. The hydrogen was at 300 bar and 300C centigrade and between 200 and 300 bar. The hydrogen ignited probably spontaneously and killed 4 workers and injured additional 3.
A similar accident seems to have taken place in the same installation 5 years before. A safety study of the facility has been requested before the start-up of the plant
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
Main component involved?
Valve (Vent)
Initiating cause
Wrong Operation
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING cause was the manual opening of a valve which released hydrogen

The root causes have not been identified even if a general test of the equipment involved in the fire and/or suspected to have caused the accident was carried out.

Facility

Application
Chemical Industry
Sub-application
alcohols production
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
venting flange reactor(?)
Location type
Unknown
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS
The hydrogenation unit was part of an organic chemical industry for the production of raw hydrogenated alcohols from vegetable and animal raw materials.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
3
Number of fatalities
4
Currency
Euro
Property loss (onsite)
2500000
Post-event summary
4 causalities, 3 injured workers, 2.5 MEuro damage.

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

An investigation was performed, which however it is not (anymore) publicly available.
Logic recommendations would be to improve the venting system to avoid mass release and fire, and to conduct a detailed analysis of previous similar event which seems to have taken place in the same installation 5 years previously (in 1984).

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Actual pressure (MPa)
30
Design pressure (MPa)
30
Presumed ignition source
Auto-ignition
Flame type
Jet flame

References

Reference & weblink

Event description in European database eMARS<br />
https://emars.jrc.ec.europa.eu/en/eMARS/accident/view/16d71de8-dd2d-843… />
(accessed September 2020)

Event description in French database ARIA <br />
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/170/<br />
(accessed September 2020)<br />

JRC assessment