Explosion During Hydrogen Supply in a Chemical Company
This event occurred when a hydrogen-carrying trailer was supplying hydrogen to a chemical plant. Instead of filling the hydrogen stationary storage, large quantities of hydrogen were transferred from the trailer into the compressed air plant network. The explosive atmosphere ignited in a compressed air consumer (a solid silo which was not containing hazardous materials). The explosion opened a flange of the compressed air line, from which the hydrogen escaped and burned off.The cause was the confusion between hydrogen and compressed air connections: due to missing or unclear lablelling, the trailer operator connected by mistake the trailer hydrogen putlet to the plant compressed air supply.
Event Date
October 27, 2022
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Cause Comments
The immediate/direct cause was the erroneous injection of hydrogen into a compressed air network, due to the confusion between hydrogen and compressed air connections. The root/contributing causes were: (i) the connection were missing or having unclear labeling.(ii) the design of the hydrogen sampling port, which was similar to compressedair on other trailers.
Facility Information
Application Type
Application
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
compressed air network
Storage/Process Medium
Location Type
Location description
Unknown
Operational Condition
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
CORRECTIVE MEASURESOn the short term: to use a mobile compressor unit instead of the plant comoressed air supply.(i) The owner of the trailer to clearly label the nozzles for all media.(ii) To include the compressed air and hydrogen connections in the plant operating instructions. (ii) To equip the compressed air network with a backflow protection .(iv) To communicate the event to the industrial gases association, to develop a connectiondesign able to avoid mix-up.
Event Nature
Emergency Action
Cooling of the pipes adjacent to the fire.Flushing the affected section of the compressed air system with clearance measurement.Flushing the silos containing the explosive mixture.
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Source Category
References
References
Event from Germal database ZEMA
https://www.infosis.uba.de/index.php/en/site/13947/zema/index.html
https://www.infosis.uba.de/index.php/en/binaries/asset/zema_ereignis/31…
(accessed December 2023)