Hydrogen Related Accidents and Lesson Learned from Events Reported in the East Continental Asia

Hydrogen as an energy carrier plays an important role in carbon neutrality and energy transition. Hydrogen is the lightest element, with a density of only 0.08375 kg/m3 in gaseous form at standard temperature and pressure (STP); as a result, hydrogen is usually stored and transported in a highly compressed form. It is prone to leakage and has a very low ignition energy of 0.017 mJ. Safety remains a challenge in the use of hydrogen as an energy source. This paper examines approximately 20 hydrogen-related accidents in China over a 20-year period, focusing on the root causes, consequences of the accidents and responses to them. These accidents occurred in the production, storage, transport and application of hydrogen, with different causes in different locations and resulting in losses at different scales. Some statistical evaluations were conducted to learn lessons from the accidents. The main objective of this paper is (i) to retrieve a set of hydrogen related incidents from a region which is under-represented in incident repositories, (ii) to contribute to a generalised lesson learned from them, and (iii) to assist the definition of realistic scenarios for commonly occurring hydrogen accidents.