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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Leakage and ignition of hydrocarbon mixture from a pipeline

Event

Event ID
1048
Quality
Description
A mixture of mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen was released from a pipe transferring process gases in a not further specified unit of a chemical plant. The released gases formed a flammable mixture which ignited possibly due to static electricity and resulting in 22 deaths and 8 injuries.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Asia
Country
China
Date
Main component involved?
Pipe
How was it involved?
Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Hc-Air Mixture
Initiating cause
Unknown
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Facility

Application
Chemical Industry
Sub-application
unspecified
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
process gases feed line
Location type
Open
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
8
Number of fatalities
22
Post-event summary
22 deaths and 8 injuries

Event Nature

Release type
gas mixture
Involved substances (% vol)
H2,
CO
Presumed ignition source
Static electricity

References

Reference & weblink

Government site reporting incidents: <br />
https://www.mem.gov.cn/fw/jsxx/202106/t20210630_390326.shtml <br />
(last retrieved 20.02.2023)

B.Wang et al., Hydrogen related accidents and lesson learned from events reported in the<br />
in east continental Asia,#2023, ICHS-2023

JRC assessment