A plume of hydrogen gas escaped from the offloading valve of a liquid hydrogen delivery truck while transporting hydrogen to a commercial facility. The plume ignited, resulting in a flash and concussion loud enough to be heard inside the nearby building and to set off the building’s seismic event detectors. A small amount of hydrogen gas continued to escape from the trailer tank and burn until a company specialist arrived to manually shut off a critical valve almost eight hours later.

A fire erupted from a tanker truck delivering liquid hydrogen to a factory. The ignition of leaking vapors created a plume of flames that rose dozens of feet into the air. The flames receded within seconds, leaving the truck with little damage and its driver unharmed.

The truck was off-loading hydrogen into a tank behind the plant when the incident occurred. The plant reported no delays in its production. It uses the hydrogen in various processes.

Incident Synopsis
At an offsite liquid H2 fill station, a liquid hydrogen trailer hit a gaseous H2 purge shut off valve handle. Tubing attached to the purge valve was bent on both ends but did not leak.

Cause
The driver was not sufficiently careful in approaching the liquid H2 system fill point.

Incident Synopsis
While disconnecting a liquid H2 fill line from a liquid H2 trailer, liquid H2 escaped, burning a second man who was holding the hose. The man was burned on his hands and on his stomach.

Cause
The liquid H2 shut off valve was partially open, but both men assumed it was closed. Prescribed clothing was being worn.

Incident Synopsis
During transfer of liquid H2 from a commercial tank trailer to a receiving vessel, a leak developed in a bayonet fitting at the trailer/facility connection. The leak produced liquid H2 spray which enveloped the rear of the truck where the hand-operated shutoff valve was located. Emergency trained personnel, wearing protective clothing, except for proper shoes, entered the area and shut off the flow control valve. Reentry personnel suffered frost bite of their feet when shoes became frozen to the water-wetted rear deck of the truck.

Incident Synopsis

Incident Synopsis
While transferring liquid H2 from a tanker, the burst disk ruptured at 50 psi. The pressure limit for the operation was 30 psi.

Cause
The operator turned on the pressure valve and left it unattended, permitting pressure buildup past the allowed 30 psi.

An explosion at a coal-fired power plant killed one person and injured 10 others. The blast killed the delivery truck driver who was unloading compressed hydrogen gas, which is used to cool the plant's steam generators. Hydrogen deliveries are routine at the plant, occurring about once a week. Evidence pointed to the premature failure of a pressure-relief device (PRD) rupture disk, which had been repaired by the vendor six months prior to the explosion.

A hydrogen fire occurred in an early morning accident involving a hydrogen tube trailer and multiple vehicles on a rural highway. The cause of the collision is unknown, however, it appears to be unrelated to hydrogen (i.e., it was likely human driving errors). The hydrogen tubes contained compressed hydrogen gas at a pressure of 15 bar (218 psi). The accident caused a leak in the hydrogen plumbing system and deformed one of the hydrogen tubes, resulting in a 10-centimeter (4-inch) longitudinal crack from which hydrogen began to leak (see Figures 1 and 2).

A hydrogen leak occurred when hydrogen tube trailer traveling on a rural roadway left the road, overturned on its side, and resulted in a single hydrogen tube valve being opened or broken. The cause of the accident is unknown, however, it appears to be unrelated to hydrogen (i.e., it is likely that human driving errors caused the accident). The hydrogen tubes contained compressed hydrogen gas at 200 bar (2,900 psi).