This occurrence underscores the importance of appropriate design, equipment selection, and design review; the potential drawbacks of sharing utilities with other facilities; and the need to simplify [in this case, glove box atmosphere…

Safe work procedures will be prepared and followed. Hydrogen will be vented out of the system to create an inert atmosphere before working on system tubing and joints. The importance of purging hydrogen piping and equipment is discussed in the…

The possible outcomes from new maintenance scenarios can be predicted by using an accurate simulation. The proposed filter change-out maintenance was studied to identify conditions to which the catalyst might be exposed and a mock-up of the…

Work pre-planning is essential whenever maintenance or work activities may have an adverse impact on everyday operations. When there are changes to the operational status of any critical system, especially a safety critical system, those changes…

Hazard assessment is critical during the design, fabrication, and installation of system modifications to ensure hazards and potential hazards are addressed prior to system start-up and operation.

The hydrogen facility does not meet industrial guidelines for facilities of this type, from the standpoint of (1) the separation distance needed between a hydrogen pipe break and the building ventilation intake to prevent buildup of a flammable…

Consider design review of all adapter fittings.

1.  Combustible gas detectors calibrated for hydrogen can falsely report hydrogen alarms due the presence of other gases the detector may pick up, such as carbon monoxide from engine exhaust or other sources. Since this event occurred, two…

A hydrogen release of this type is a significant event. The event highlighted a number of procedural contributing factors that will influence the manner in which these fuel cell systems will be serviced in the future. A complicating factor in…