Hydrogen Plant Relief Line Failure Due to Acoustically Induced Vibrations
Center Hydrogen Safety Conference
2024
2024 Center for Hydrogen Safety Americas Conference
General Submissions
Session 6 - Incidents & Lessons Learned
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 - 10:15am to 10:30am
A relief line section of piping failed unexpectedly during a startup of one of our hydrogen plants. Fortunately no one was in the area at the time of release and the escaping syngas did not ignite or explode. To shorten startup duration, this startup line was utilized to vent the heat-up gas to relief downstream of the low temperature shift converter reactor. The line failure was attributed to fatigue caused by a lesser known damage mechanism, acoustic induced vibration ("AIV"). AIV occurred due to the line not being designed for the full gas flowrate. This incident highlights the importance of having and following well written procedures, recognizing, and mitigating risk, and completing thorough risk assessments through the Management of Change process. It also serves to raise awareness around AIV, and is a good reminder of the industry need to avoid the common operational trap of normalizing deviation.
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