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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Small release from a LH2 trailer

Event

Event ID
1122
Quality
Description
A LH2 trailer was delivering liquid hydrogen to a customer. Once finished the delivery, the driver noticed a leak on the piping between the trailer and vent valve inside the side cabinet. The trailer was stabilised and returned to origin for repair.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Unignited Hydrogen Release
Nature of the consequences
Leak No Ignition (No additional details provided)
Macro-region
North America
Country
United States
Date
Main component involved?
Piping (Trailer)
How was it involved?
Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
Initiating cause
Material Degradation (Generic)
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIAL CAUSE was a leak on the connection between the trailer (tank) and the vent line.
The ROOT CAUSE is related to ageing or another form of degradation of the pipe. However, it is not to known if this was related to lack of maintenance, ill-choice of materials, or to a previous event causing mechanical damage.

Facility

Application
Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
Sub-application
LH2 tanker
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
All components affected
pipe
Location type
Open
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences
The drive had just terminated the LH2 transfer from the trailer to the stationary tank.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
0
Number of fatalities
0
Environmental damage
0
Currency
US$
Property loss (onsite)
0
Property loss (offsite)
0
Post-event summary
No injury, only a loss of hydrogen (21 kg)

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Released amount
21.453444360333
Presumed ignition source
No ignition

References

Reference & weblink

Incident E-2011050327 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA: <br />
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%… />
(accessed September 2024)

JRC assessment