Explosion on a Hydrogen Storage Tank
A crack occurred in a storage tank (300 kg of hydrogen) releasing gaseous hydrogen to atmosphere. The vapour cloud exploded with an apparent centre of explosion 9 m above ground, with a energy equivalent to 9 to 18 kg of TNT.
Event Date
December 21, 1975
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Causes
Cause Comments
The immediate cause of the release has been the cracking of the tank. Nothing is known on the cracking cause. It could be maintenance and inspection failure, or design failure in the case of hydrogen metal attack.
Facility Information
Application Type
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
storage tank
Storage/Process Medium
Storage/Process Quantity
300
Storage/Process Units
Location Type
Location description
Unknown
Consequences
Number of Injured Persons
1
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
The event description does not provide enough information to deduce a lesson learned. Some general conclusions on the physical phenomena underlying the explosion have been drown by E. Oran 2020 (see references). They assessed this and similar hydrogen explosions as "...air blasts in turbulent clouds ignited very soon after release from containment." "...there is no doubt that these were intense VPE's. It seems that the natural buoyancy of these gases does not favour the development of sufficiently large flammable clouds in open space. "
Event Nature
Emergency Action
Unknown
Release Type
Release Substance
Hydrogen Release Concentration (%)
100.00
Release Amount (kg)
300.00
Ignition Source
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Source Category
References
References
Extract from the Leonoir et al. 1993, referring to this event.