Hydrogen Explosion in a Metal Galvanization Workshop
The event took place at the metal sheet pre-heating oven. This oven uses a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen to form a reducing atmosphere. The zinc crucibles draining operations was completed and the hydrogen purge operation which had been started 6 hours earlier, was underway when the explosion happened.
Event Date
July 25, 2005
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Causes
Cause Comments
The immediate cause is attributed to the valve on the backup hydrogen tank and the by-pass on the furnaces supply line not being closed. A hot spot in the oven probably ignited the explosive atmosphere.No information is available on the root cause.
Facility Information
Application Type
Application
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
Pre-heating oven for metal sheets
Storage/Process Medium
Location Type
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational Condition
Pre-event Summary
The oven had been shut down the previous evening for annual maintenance work.
Consequences
Number of Injured Persons
3
Environmental Damage
13000000
Currency
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
Unknown
Event Nature
Emergency Action
Unknown
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Source Category
References
References
Event No, 30365 of the French database ARIA (accessed December 2020)