Event
- Event ID
- 983
- Quality
- Description
The incident took place on the reforming furnace unit of the plant. Around 23:30 pm, during a normal inspection tour, an operator detected a fire on a section of a steam line.
The operator immediately informed the control room. The unit was reduced in speed, with process parameters monitored to ensure that the situation did not worsen. Steam hoses were used in the direction of the flame and the identified hot spots. The next morning at around 6:00 am, the unit was progressively shut down and the fire extinguished.
The fire occurred in one of the boxes containing the header of on one of the reforming tubes bundle. Th efire did not have impact on the surrounding area or equipment.- 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?
- Flange (Bolts)
- How was it involved?
- Leak & Formation Of A Flammable Syngas-Air Mixture
- Initiating cause
- Loss Of Tightness (Thermal Stress/Cycling)
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
- Root CAUSE analysis
An investigation of the causes, carried out after the removal of the affected vessel, showed a leak on a weakened flange. The gasket was intact, no trace of leakage was detected.
Therefore The INITIATING CAUSE was a leaking flange which had partially loosened, possibly due to differential thermal dilatation.
Facility
- Application
- Chemical Industry
- Sub-application
- Steam methane reforming
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
- reformer unit, gasket
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
- DESCRIPTION IOF THE REFORMING UNIT
The reforming furnace unit consisted of 198 tubes containing a catalyst. Each furnace contained 11 headers on which 18 reforming tubes were welded. Each header was enclosed in a box and fed the transfer line to the secondary reforming.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas mixture (syngas)
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2,
CH4,
CO,
CO2 - Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Event description no 53561 in the French database ARIA (accessed October 2021)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ARIA
