Fire on Board of the Hydrogen-Propelled Passenger Ship
The boat was performing a drive test when one of the 280 lead gel batteries exploded and took fire. The local fire brigade was able to extinguish the fire but the above deck section of the boat was extensively damaged. According to Volger and to Wannemacher (see references), the automatic fire-alarm system of the hydrogen storage and the fuel cells were "brought in a safe state" and did not suffered any damage.
Event Date
April 28, 2010
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Cause Comments
The immediate cause, as reported by the local news, was an explosion in one of the batteries, which developed into a general fire. According to one of the reference (T. Wannemacher), the "cause was a wrong battery installationby an external battery company".
Facility Information
Application Type
Application
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
hydrogen passenger inland boat
Storage/Process Medium
Storage/Process Quantity
50
Design Pressure
350
Location Type
Location description
Ship and/or Harbor
Pre-event Summary
The boat was built in 2008 and had already successful started service. The fire developed during a drive test, the references do no report the number of people on board at that time. A detailed description of the boat design is given by F. Vogler et al. at the ICHS2011 (see reference). The boat had installed an electrical motor of 160 kW, provided by two fuel cell systems, each with a peak power of 48 kW, and a 560 V lead gel battery pack. The hydrogen storage system consisted of 12 tanks at 350 bar , for a total of 50 kg.
Currency
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
The boat was the world first boat propelled by hydrogen and fuel cells. Its safety design is described in details by Vogler and by Wannemacher (see references). According to them, the incident has damaged the public reputation of the fuel cell technologies, but demonstrated the soundness of the safety design:1) Neither the fuel cell nor the hydrogen were involved in the incident sequence; 2) The preventing and mitigating measures of the hydrogen storage and fuel cells systems worked according to the design; 3) Despite of the massive damages was neither the fuel cell system nor the hydrogenstorage was damaged or endangered;
Event Nature
Emergency Action
Considering the hazards related to the presence of compressed hydrogen on board, the local fire brigade intervened with 50 responders and 2 water throwers.
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Source Category
References
References
Hamburger Abendblatt - Bergerdorfer Zeitung, news of the 28 April 2010,
https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/bergedorf/vier-und-marschlande/articl…
(accessed October 2020)
F. Vogler, and G. Warsig, FUEL CELLS IN MARITIME APPLICATIONS CHALLENGES, CHANCES AND EXPERIENCES, International Conference on Hydrogen Safety, ICHS 2001,
http://conference.ing.unipi.it/ichs2011/papers-presentations.htm
Online Presentation https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fch.europa.eu%2Fs…