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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire in a basic chemicals production site

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