Event
- Event ID
- 1007
- Quality
- Description
- This incident occurred in a unit processing vegetable oils and fats.
an explosion occurred in a hydrogenation facility, specifically where hydrogen is processed with a very high-pressure (400 bar). Accidental mixing with oxygen caused an explosion which further ignited oil, fat, and alcohol. The volatile mixture produced the acrid black smoke seen and felt in the surroundings.
A fire-brigade from the involved town was at the scene in a few minutes and was assisted by the Fire Department of a bigger city. Approximately one hour later the fire was extinguished.
An employee of a contractor was injured when he fell from a scaffold, and two truck drivers were examined as outpatients. - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- Germany
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Reactor / Oven / Furnace / Test Chamber
- How was it involved?
- Internal Explosion (H2-O2 Mixture)
- Initiating cause
- Unknown
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The results of the internal investigation is not publicly available. Both the district government and the company agreed that it was plausible to identify in a material failure the immediate cause of the incident.
Therefore, only the INITIATING cause is known, and not even in details.
Facility
- Application
- Chemical Industry
- Sub-application
- Basic chemicals products
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
- pipe
- Location type
- Semiconfined
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 3
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Post-event summary
- An employee of a contractor was injured when he fell from a scaffold, and two truck drivers were examined as outpatients.
According to the company, no poisonous substances leaked, and the strong rubber smell was caused by burning cable insulation.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Actual pressure (MPa)
- 40
- Design pressure (MPa)
- 40
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Event from German database ZEMA<br />
https://www.infosis.uba.de/index.php/de/binaries/asset/zema_ereignis/16… />
(accessed December 2024)News of Westdeutsche Zeitung on 14 and 17 April 2011<br />
https://www.wz.de/app/consent/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wz.de%2Fnrw%2Fdues… />
(accessed Aug 2023)News of Westdeutsche Zeitung on 14 and 17 April 2011<br />
https://www.wz.de/app/consent/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wz.de%2Fnrw%2Fdues… />
(accessed Aug 2023)News of Rheinishce Poston 10 April 2011<br />
https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/duesseldorf/cognis-produktion-wieder-g… />
(accessed Aug 2023)References\HIAD_1007 eMARS.pdf
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ZEMA