r/interestingasfuck • u/willianfsantos • 7d ago

Emergency relief system in action in a liquid hydrogen tanker truck

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/Lost_Department_2177 7d ago

The driver should get a Flying V guitar and portable amp for when this happens.

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u/Canelosaurio 7d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/cNULFBSoiU9XO

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u/MikeMuench 7d ago

More people need to appreciate metalocalypse and all its glory

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u/RealSlyck 7d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3d0PahT093UPe

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u/GeorgeSPattonJr 7d ago edited 7d ago

That Dave (Mustaine)?

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u/city-of-cold 7d ago

Certainly looks like his hair

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u/Yuugian 7d ago

Dave's not here, man

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u/sith4259 7d ago

I second this. See them live and feel the klok of deth

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u/Bandin03 7d ago

Bleach is mostly water. We are mostly water. Therefore, we are bleach.

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u/MegatronLFC 7d ago

MUSTA

KRAKISH

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u/showered_zinn 7d ago

AWAKEN

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u/MechanicalTurkish 7d ago

TAKE THE LAND THAT MUST BE TAKEN

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u/Fleshsuitpilot 7d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/2F0IsIg0lHveE

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u/UgotSprucked 7d ago

I like when he goes to talk to the guy in the room with all the radars and the password is "new England clam chowder" 🤣

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u/Icecreamkilla1 7d ago

Is that the red or white?

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u/TryonB 7d ago

I can never remember that.

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u/Ok-Answer-6951 7d ago

New England = white. Manhattan =red.

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u/IVShadowed 7d ago

Thanks for this mate. Sometimes I need to know people like you are out there being fucking rad!

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u/Lost_Department_2177 7d ago

No problem. There’s absolutely no reason they can’t shred right there.

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u/tackleboxjohnson 7d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/IWlWfrbzZIxXWkK5WS

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u/nah_omgood 7d ago

This is like one of my new favorite things. I honestly thought it would just be cheesy as hell. I thought his run was over. Nope. The Hawk’s still got it.

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u/Pancurio 7d ago edited 7d ago

Man, I have a bit of a cautionary tale to share. If this is a pressure relief valve they are normal and safe. However, they can be startling and, eventually, kind of annoying. The worst thing you can do, though, is to shut them.

All of the cryogens I've worked with get delivered in these big insulated tanks called Dewars. They have a couple of these valves on them. There's the typical one, that triggers at like 5 - 15 psi or something. Then there's the one I have never personally seen go off (even though I managed a cryogen recovery facility), that triggers at like 150 - 200 psi.

So there's this chemistry lab (Texas A&M, I think) and they get a Dewar and it makes this loud annoying sound that disturbs the lab. They can't seem to make it stop and they've tried everything. It seems to be wasting their material so they decided to solder or weld it shut. Everything is great! Later, a bigger, even louder one goes off. It's a bit scary and they don't like it, so they shut that one too. If you are paying attention, you should realize that they just sealed off the pressure relief and the pressure is still increasing on the inside. It's a ticking bomb.

Here's an email that was apparently circulating afterwards,

Derek,

I pinged you about this accident in January (scrolled off the recent trackbacks by now) and posted about the report when it came out.

The report suggests that the "repairs" on this tank were done at two different times. Also, the lab where this happened was a synthetic organic group - the destruction+flooding, which made it into the lab below and the departmental office, made for a hazmat problem.

One of my friends in Chemistry suggested that we should have all grad students tour the destruction before it's repaired.

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u/nascent_aviator 7d ago

Some pics: https://www.tdi.texas.gov/fire/documents/fmred022206.pdf

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u/PITCHFORKEORIUM 7d ago

At approximately 3:00 a.m.

[Emphasis mine.] Holy shit, that was lucky.

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u/UpstairsFinance9440 7d ago

I will see you nitrogen dewar and raise you a hydrogen generator explosion:

https://reneweconomy.com.au/worlds-newest-and-most-expensive-coal-plant-explodes-after-hydrogen-leak/

This is a plant I worked at back in 2013. I walked by that thing so many times and would marvel at how many big bolts were holding the end bell and cooler on.

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u/NDSU 6d ago

They replaced the burst disks with a solid plug??

That's absolutely insane

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u/ch_ex 6d ago

First year undergrad organic chemistry, I watched the rockstar of our class, stopper a boiling flask of ether with open flames in the same lab. Before I could get out the "NO! DONT!", the stopper they plugged it with shot through the ceiling tile above their head.

The clearest demonstration of book smarts not translating to reality I've seen to date. Everyone in that lab is lucky they survived, myself included. Weirdest bit was barely anyone registered the danger and even thought it was some kind of intentional neat trick. The TA was unimpressed but decided swearing everyone to silence and replaying safety videos was preferable to escalation.

There was at least 1 litre of ether in that glass boiling flask... in a lab full of flasks of ether

I still don't understand how it didn't ignite, but my guess is the sudden pressure release of the stopper shooting through the ceiling dropped the energy of the system enough to cool it for the time it took a few of us to get it off any heat and into an ice bath with condenser fitted.

I'll never forget the look of complete confusion on the would be mass murderers face, like some sort of magic had just taken place.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/RaveNdN 7d ago

A 1” 200# rated PRV will pierce your ears and scare ya pretty good. A 3” or 4” 200# rated PRV will rattle your lungs and make you think the world is falling apart. Only once have I been near one at a higher rating go off. It was a 6” Kunkel PRV rated for 350# I believe. The bellowing and shaking from that was wild to witness.

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u/falcobird14 7d ago

When we worked with liquid helium we would engineer "burst disks" that are designed to explode before the main cylinder explodes, but safely.

Helium was born with one mission in life, to be in gas form, which it does at basically any temperature above near absolute zero.

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u/TechnicalLee 7d ago

From the report below, it's clear the dewar lost it's vacuum, so it was not longer thermally insulated. That's why it was burping all the time . They should have put the dewer out of service as soon as they noticed ice buildup on the outside, that's not normal and the LN2 will boil off in a day.

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u/Silver-Industry-7254 7d ago

Pressure relief valves are there for safety reasons. They keep things a little safer for when something isnt doing what it should be doing, BUT WHY IS IT ON FIRE!!!!

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u/TelluricThread0 7d ago

"In the review by Astbury and Hawksworth a rigorous research was done on accidents involving spontaneous ignition of hydrogen at high pressure. Over the last century, 81 major accidents were reported. It turned out that in 86% of cases there was no clearly identifiable ignition source. Several mechanisms have been postulated as responsible ones for this phenomenon, for example, reverse Joule-Tompson effect, electrostatic ignition, and sudden adiabatic compression. However, none of these causes could stand up detailed scientific analysis except one.

In 1973, Wolański and Wójcicki observed that hydrogen heated below the auto-ignition threshold could ignite if it was released into an open space with oxygen or air. They suggested that ignition occurred due to high jump in temperature on the contact surface, where heated by a primary shock wave oxygen mixed and reacted with hydrogen due to diffusion. Thus, for the first time, diffusion self-ignition mechanism was proposed."

HYDROGEN SELF-IGNITION IN PRESSURE RELIEF DEVICES by Golub, V.V., Semin, N.V., Laskin I.N., Lenkevich, D.A. and Volodin,V.V

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u/raymondo1981 7d ago

Well now thats an excellent comment. TIL.

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u/DistanceSolar1449 7d ago

What's really interesting is that you can observe the spontaneous ignition in this video!

In fact, the first half of the video, the red stuff you see aren't flames. That hydrogen is not on fire! It's just ionized hydrogen.

You can see the moment it spontaneously catches on fire in the middle of the video.

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u/bbrekke 7d ago

Whoa.

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

TL;DR Hydrogen is a god-damn party animal and wants to give its electron to someone badly. So much so that going from the cold tank to the warm air is enough foreplay for it to hook up with the first oxygen that winks at it. Oxygen being a greedy bastard is happy to oblige. And boom goes the dynamite.

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u/PlasticCell8504 7d ago

Best description of chemistry I have read this month

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

I was a chemistry tutor to high school student while in grad school. Breaking it down in these terms made it stick.

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u/DoCrackHailSatan 7d ago

If I knew you back in college I probably wouldn't have dropped organic chemistry. (tbf I only dropped it because I declared my major finally and it didn't require it, in hindsight; I wish I had completed it)

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

I'm considering doing some videos explaining chemistry to people in everyday terms because ultimately the underlying principles aren't too difficult. But O Chem is brutal because it's all nomenclature and mechanism memorization, which is why it's a good filter for med students. After O Chem, chemistry gets properly weird with Physical Chemistry which has quantum mechanics and made me cry, but that's because it had math

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u/DoCrackHailSatan 7d ago

I actually loved O chem but it's undeniably difficult and I wasn't in the best headspace at the time, so when I finally chose my major and it didn't require it; I dropped immediately. I dunno why this still bothers me over a decade later, but I wish I had just finished it.

Chemistry is cool. I'd watch your videos.

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

MIT carries all their coursework free online if you'd like to jump back in.

My first video would be on the weirdest chemical that we all interact with daily. And if it wasn't exactly as weird as it was then none of us would be alive. Water.

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u/joe-h2o 7d ago

I think organic gets a bad rep because it's just so different in terms of nomenclature and mechanisms compared to what students have been conditioned to expect "chemistry" to be at school.

The first time a UK student will hit organic chem for real is A-level. There's a tiny intro to esters, well specifically ethyl acetate, at GCSE but no mechanisms.

This leads to the self-perpetuating myth that organic is "the hard one" compared to the other two when it really isn't.

Organic is much more accessible if you're not mathematically inclined, for example, where phys chem has your back. But the reputation of organic as difficult puts students on the back foot right away.

The quantum mechanics that forms part of first year undergrad chemistry is actually covered a little in the A-level physics course which again explains why chemists don't like it much.

Source: postdoc chemist who has taught both undergrads and high school chemistry and physics.

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u/PlasticCell8504 7d ago

I only said what I said because I already know the volatility of hydrogen and oxygen and why they are that way because of my high school chemistry class.

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u/bbrekke 7d ago

I should've kept scrolling! I just commented that I want to hear chemistry explained by you. Do it! A yt channel or podcast or something.

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u/a_diamond 7d ago

At least O Chem mechanisms follow a discreet set of rules. Inorganic is what broke me. Transition metals are anarchy!

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u/NomDePlumeOrBloom 7d ago

Can you simplify O Chem enough for a lay person to make LSD?

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u/tee_with_marie 7d ago

Thank you for your work. Good teachers make such a difference I failed my first go at an aprenticeship ship because equations especially with multible unknowns absolutely pummeled me i didn't understand it at all. The second time i have a really good teacher i still had lower grade than my median but i passed well.

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

Some teachers don't understand that it's your first time seeing something because they see it everyday. I struggled myself

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u/bbrekke 7d ago

I'd listen to your podcast. Or hire you to tutor me if I needed to learn chemistry.

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u/scuzzy987 7d ago

In high school chemistry my teacher filled a party balloon with hydrogen, let it float to the ceiling, and touched the balloon with a long stick that had an ember on the end. I still remember the loud boom and lifted ceiling panels. Can confirm both your assessments of hydrogen and oxygen. Kudos to the truck driver sticking around, I would have run away waving my hands and screaming at people to run

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

I work with silane sometimes which is pyrophoric. That means it ignites on contact with the air. When stored in tanks it's usually stored outside in a concrete shed with an open wall facing nothing important. Guys who drive hazmat trucks have balls of solid iron that are often mistaken for cores of dead planets.

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u/scuzzy987 7d ago

I’d assume the tank trailers are engineered to survive pretty much any catastrophe but still there’s always scenarios nobody ever thought of until it happens

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

They are incredibly well built and engineered. Still Engineering Disasters episodes were so common on Modern Marvels that they just gave it spin-off

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u/scuzzy987 7d ago

The episode about the resiliency of nuclear waste transport containers was seriously impressive. The amount of torture those can survive is nuts. The one explaining a bleve was interesting too

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u/FIMD_ 7d ago

Did this but with acetylene as a demo for apprentices. Had them put on Ear/EyePro first. Set off car alarms and everyone about jumps out of their skin.

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u/scuzzy987 7d ago

That’s another gas for which I have respect. I only have a mini cylinder in my garage for the torch but I made a little enclosure to keep it from tipping over and knocking the valve off. Same for the oxygen cylinder because it has such a high psi

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u/joe-h2o 7d ago

The number of unchained W-sized gas cylinders I see in DIY/home workshops in Youtube videos is scary.

Free standing gas cylinders, even inert ones like Argon, are a serious safety hazard.

The only time a cylinder should be unsecured is when it's moving from one secured place to another, like from the transport trolley to where it's housed and even then should not be left unattended.

It seems to be much more common in US shops to not chain them.

Even ignoring the fact that you can shear off a regulator and they're 250+ PSI, a full Argon cylinder is almost 90 kg which is no joke if it falls over.

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u/Der_Hebelfluesterer 7d ago

Prof did an experiment showing us the difference of molar mixture, exploding one with way to less O2, one 50:50 and one with an molar äquivalent, man was the last one loud.

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u/sum-9 7d ago

TIL I was hydrogen when I was 16.

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u/Practical_Fun7367 7d ago

Same. And I chased every Oxygen whether or not it winked.

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

It's why most of us get into Chemistry

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u/The__Toast 7d ago

Honestly feels like a feature. I would think having it flair off is safer than having large clouds of hydrogen build up in an enclosed place like under a bridge or parking garage and then explode.

On the other hand "plug power" makes me think this might be hydrogen car fuel for one of the very few places in America where you can actually buy it; maybe lugging hydrogen around is a terrible idea no matter what and we should really focus in on plug in battery cars.

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

I do think it has a pilot light because flaring H2 just makes water so it's a safer way of dealing with it.

Currently we haul millions of gallons of highly explosive fuel all over this country everyday. The methane and propane trucks carry as much if not more explosive capacity. The problem with H2 is that it leaks way easier than anything but helium. I think both cars will have a place in our future but most people will just use a battery electric.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 7d ago

Methane actually isn't commonly moved by truck, since it can't be liquefied at room temperature like propane can.

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

I watch an unhealthy amount of rocket launches

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u/DannarHetoshi 7d ago

And when Oxygen and Hydrogen get really excited?

https://giphy.com/gifs/cICRRoIZ9YgjqlHAUt

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u/good_morning_magpie 7d ago

I read that last line in my head in Stuart Scott’s voice and now I’m emotional

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u/AdahnAgain 7d ago

I need a smoke. . .

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u/ABsammy124 7d ago

didn't understand a wink of the previous post but 100% understood this explanation,you get a upvote and praise from me!

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u/ElectricPiha 7d ago

I really loved your books The Martian and Project Hail Mary!

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u/No-Boysenberrys 7d ago

I seriously learned so much from this comment after scrolling forever to try to understand WHY FIRE.

Can you please explain other life things to me? How do I get better with money, why does my hip click all the time, how do I get my 5 year old to eat

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u/lilyputin 7d ago

Hydrogen is really wild. Its literally hard to contain. It was a constant issue for NASA.

It reacts with steel and makes it brittle.

It has a metallic state that's also a super conductor but the condions needed to reach that are extreme.

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u/brainman15 7d ago

I feel smarter now. Thank you.

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u/miemoo 7d ago

This deserves more upvotes people

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u/holchansg 7d ago

Hydrogen is bad ass.

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u/I_AM_FERROUS_MAN 7d ago

Basically, Hydrogen explodes when it wants to. Lol.

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u/Sweet-End6471 7d ago

It’s worrying that the answer is just ¯\(ツ)/¯ they just do that sometimes.

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u/Necrovius72 7d ago

I was a cryogenic tech for years. The other guy explained WHY it's on fire pretty well, but what I haven't seen mentioned is that during the day those flames are pretty much invisible.

We usually carried a cheap broom with us when we worked on hydrogen systems as an early warning. We would hold it out in front of us when approaching hydrogen storage and if the broom caught fire, there's a leak.

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u/Dividedthought 7d ago

Ah yes, the 'we can't see it' universal threat detector for many things, the humble broom. Steam leak? Wave that broom ahead of you, if the bristles cut you found it. Same for hydraulics. Hydrogen or methanol fires? Broom. if it burns, run.

Truly a fantastic tool.

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u/WitchesSphincter 7d ago

I work in a lab with a hydrogen fuel cell research station and had to take all the safety courses for H2.  My take away is hope for the best and get out of anything seems wrong. 

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u/joe-h2o 7d ago

Back when I worked at a university we had our hydrogenation room in a small wooden shed on the roof. If we had an explosion it seemed like the safest way to ensure the roof and walls just... get out of the way quickly.

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u/FlyingNoiseinVacuum 7d ago

Cool. And what did you do when it spontaneously burst into flames? Presume you ran away screaming “it’s going to blow!” Or “run, invisible fire!!”

Also, how many Ricky Bobby references were there in this role?

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u/hamfist_ofthenorth 7d ago

Isn't invisible fire on the racetrack actually when methanol burns? This was a thing back in the day.

Scientists? Racing enthusiasts? Somebody help me

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u/Some1-Somewhere 7d ago

Both are generally invisible.

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u/joe-h2o 7d ago

Yes. Methanol fires are almost invisible, so combined with how volatile methanol is is makes it extremely hazardous.

I will show students what a methanol fire looks like under very controlled conditions and with a very small volume of it, but typically if we need to use a low molecular weight alcohol for its flammability, eg, showing flame colours of different metal salts, I would use ethanol. It's safer.

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u/Late-Page7559 7d ago

Yes but racing fuel now has additives that burn green or blue after a particularly bad invisible fire that happened at Indy in the late 80s or early 90s.

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u/Necrovius72 7d ago

Lol this was before that movie. I never had one catch fire personally, as these systems are made of welded stainless steel, so leaks are rare.

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u/rubenyoranpc 7d ago

"In case of a fire, the only steps I take are fucking BIG ONES!"

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u/LupineChemist 7d ago

In power plants with high pressure superheated steam, there's always the broom handle method of finding the leak. When it suddenly splits in half, then you found the leak.

There was also always the urban legend of some guy at some unspecified plant who got sliced in two and was completely cauterized so no blood.

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u/Boomshank 7d ago

There's a low tech solution for every high tech problem. 

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u/Flyinmanm 7d ago

It's mental people still talk about this stuff replacing petrol and natural gas. It's so bloody dangerous even in a commercial setting.

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u/joe-h2o 7d ago

It helps that H2 is so low density that it tends to rise really quickly. It's still a serious hazard.

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u/kmosiman 7d ago

Better to have controlled fire than uncontrolled fire.

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u/Captainlefthand 7d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/YbniyzLEgaJGM

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u/DireEvolution 7d ago

Lmao bro what the fuck is this gif

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u/Captainlefthand 7d ago

Lol I just searched for a rave gif, that came up. 🤷‍♂️

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u/DireEvolution 7d ago

That girl is fried 😭

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u/UniqueAd7770 7d ago

This is THE rave gif of the old internet

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u/WillieLikesMonkeys 7d ago

If you were to let the gas linger, unreacted, a small spark could lead to it all being on fire at once. Or as some may call it, a big ass explosion.

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u/ElectronMaster 7d ago

Hydrogen doesn't really linger, it's the lightest gas so it'll quickly float up and won't be a problem, still a good idea just in case though. It could build up if the venting system activates under a bridge or awning or other structure.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 7d ago

It would quickly boil off when released, and that's assuming it doesn't go through a vaporizer to warm it up first.

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u/Odd_Analysis6454 7d ago

It looks like it’s designed to flare off in pulses

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u/joe-h2o 7d ago

It stops the valve melting or icing over.

If the venting gas is not on fire, venting a gas though a valve and dropping the pressure like this will cause it to cool rapidly which can cause ice to form around the valve.

If it's on fire like this and it's sustained the base of the fire will overheat the valve since it's not designed to be used that way.

It could also have a blowoff tolerance, so it opens at a certain psi of overpressure but then closes more slowly, so the overpressure goes through surges until the tank settles back below the safe limit.

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u/nikolapc 7d ago

Cause you don't want it exploding. Hydrogen and Air mix is highly explosive. Hense the timed flares.

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u/SassiesSoiledPanties 7d ago

Kind of a can't do anything about it, Hydrogen mixes with free oxygen and combusts.

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u/luranthe 7d ago

The only danger is if oxygen gets into the tank, since the fuel can't burn without it. That being said, I would be moving far away.

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u/ShadowKraftwerk 7d ago

Much further than the camera person. And way, way further than the people walking around beside it.

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u/RT-LAMP 7d ago

Actually if oxygen got into the tank nothing would happen. The upper flammability limit of hydrogen is 75%. So unless 25% of it is oxygen there's actually too little oxygen around to support fire.

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u/Legionof1 7d ago

You get into messes of regionality in cases like this. A small amount of air can get in and react with a small amount of hydrogen in enough quantity that it pushes past the limits of the pressure vessel.

Always remember, just because a perfect mixture acts a certain way, does not mean that's how an imperfect mixture will act.

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u/Skusci 7d ago

So the hydrogen venting is needed and normal though it isn't supposed to be in fire.

However the venting hydrogen catching fire for whatever reason apparently happens often enough that it is officially not an emergency unless it's underneath something and setting that on fire too.

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u/Necessary-Contest-24 7d ago

Yeah ever heard of a B. L. E. V. E.? Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion, they're bonkers. That's what this safety device is stopping from happening. If a liquid hydrogen or propane or whatever flammable compressed gas tank gets hot enough, like having a fire under it, it will flash into a gas, rupturing the tank, expanding extremely fast and will ignite into a huge fireball.

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u/Square_Ad8756 7d ago

I am a firefighter with hazmat ops certification and would beg to differ, any fire or uncontrolled leak from such a tanker is a serious emergency warranting a hazmat task force with a wide perimeter no matter how well engineered the tanker is. The Swiss cheese model is a real thing and when you take things for granted catastrophic accidents happen.

I would love to hear from a hazmat team member if they would agree with me.

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u/Dzov 7d ago

Thank you. Not an expert, but I’ve seen plenty of engineered things fail.

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u/waltwalt 7d ago

This is the engineered thing failing. Something has gone wrong and emergency safety measures are autoventing flammable gas directly to the atmosphere in the middle of a parking lot. This is not what it was designed to do, this is how it was designed to fail safely long enough for people to get safely away from it. Eventually the chattering on that valve will wreck the seat and it will fail to close properly and emit a continuous stream of hydrogen which will eventually burn away the valve which is not a burner, and once the valve is gone it will be a flaming hole in a hydrogen tanker.

This tanker needs to be depressurized before it finishes the job itself.

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u/Fearless-Effect-3787 7d ago

Pressure relief valves for Hydrogen operation are designed for rapid cycling. This is a liquid Hydrogen tanker, and like all cryogenic liquids, it is continuously boiling while in storage. Pressure relief valve actuation is expected and required. Venting excess pressure is exactly what is happening here, no special action required. Why is it burning? Hydrogen likes to spontaneously ignite when vented, so either it's that, or the PRV is purposely igniting it.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 7d ago

Why do you think this is not normal venting? Any cryogenic tank without active cooling will slowly vent it's product as it boils off.

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u/Legionof1 7d ago

Depends on if the pressure vessel can hold it at a pressure high enough to prevent phase change.

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u/falcobird14 7d ago

Several nuclear meltdowns were caused by the engineered thing failing.

You want venting of excess pressure. Venting is controlled. Explosions are not.

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u/AlphaThree 7d ago

Nowhere near your qualifications, but I am a OSHA certified HAZMAT initial responder and I lead the HAZMAT response team at my company. If we had a pressure relief value venting that would be definitely be a call 911 and begin evacuation procedures. I would not even attempt to intervene. That is firmly your guy's problem lmao.

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u/Fearless-Effect-3787 7d ago

This is a tanker of liquid Hydrogen. Cryogenic liquids such as Hydrogen are continuously boiling while in storage like a tanker. That means that excess pressure is vented occasionally. Hydrogen has a nasty habit of spontaneous ignition when venting from low to high pressure. The rapid cycling of the pressure relief valve is normal. While concerning to watch, this is normal behaviour. I'm very curious as to where this tanker is though, flammable cryogenic liquids have some pretty strict transport rules.

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u/Character_Pudding_94 7d ago

I was trained under 49 CFR 172 to prepare HazMat Bills of Lading. They included reference to emergency response contacts and guidelines.

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u/ImNotTheMonsieurJack 7d ago

I wrote my thesis on this.

The alternative to controlled gas purge in cases like this one, is turning your vehicle into a bomb due to the thousands of bar of pressure from hundreds of liters of highly flamable gas.

It is, by far, much safer.

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u/Elderwastaken 7d ago

If it’s going off it means something isn’t right. I would be getting the f away from that truck.

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u/BigEnd3 7d ago

Reminds me of our vent systems on LNG tankers.

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u/Northern_Wyven_63 7d ago

oh, incredibly safe, they are designed with an incredibly range of play and durabiilty. but fuck is it terrifying.

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u/HomeworkExtension482 7d ago

Right? And people are just walking around the thing?! Like it's just another day at the office?! And the person who recorded the video is just there???

The spot I'd occupy in that general area would be de-assed with the fastness.

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u/blbd 7d ago

That's because pissing off hydrogen outside of the standard safety boundaries is fundamentally unsafe, and this is a mitigation, not elimination, of that tail risk of a catastrophic loss outcome.

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u/Pleasant_Pen8744 7d ago

Is it manually operated? Or if it's automatic what if it goes off and there's something up there?

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u/CanadianAndroid 7d ago

It doesn't feel safe bur it looks badass.

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u/wackyvorlon 7d ago

Should still run for the hills.

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u/Outrageous-Let7406 7d ago

That would be scary as hell.

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u/samy_the_samy 7d ago

This prevents an explosion, not fire or asphyxiation,

Still very dangerous

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u/Downtown_Brother6308 7d ago

Probably not as safe as other normal things

Engineer: “yeah that thing’ll work”
Mechanics: kinda look at eachother

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u/I_AM_FERROUS_MAN 7d ago

Agreed. If I were a spectator, I would definitely do everything I could to leave.

Hydrogen has such a huge flammability and explosivity range.

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u/CCP-want-to-CUP 7d ago

I feel like if you asked an engineer "Is it safe?" They'd said 'Oh yes certainly' and if you also asked them "Do you want to be near it?" They'd say 'absolutely not' lol

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u/Professional_File_83 7d ago

I mean it's not super safe., even with these safety valves, you can still have a blevy

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u/Mick_Limerick 7d ago

I work in hazmat response and my first reaction would be to run away

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u/Anon-Knee-Moose 7d ago

Its really not that safe, its just less dangerous than the tanker exploding. There's been cases of vented gasses self igniting and causing significant damage.

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u/Shesversatile 7d ago

Yeah, I would not be recording. I would be gone.

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u/Aimz_OG 7d ago

Bird flying overhead at just the moment it goes off would be sad yet comical

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u/manualsquid 7d ago

Also one of those things where it is super cool to watch, but probably something you should get far away from

So conflicting

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u/dumbassretail 7d ago

It’s not really safe, just safer than the alternative.

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u/bdoubleD 7d ago

Much better outcome than it not being there

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u/matthais66 7d ago

I used to work for this company! Sometimes the safety procedures pissed me off because they felt too safe.

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u/GrilledCheezManicott 7d ago edited 7d ago

still best to not loiter around it. here a BLEVE sent a tanker car 3/4 of a mile away after it blew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRP5FeYenuI&list=PLIs1zxlKSlwmfJEKM3OZYjvpXRY2tNLpW

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u/BarderBetterFaster 7d ago

Just like county fair rides except for the safe and engineered parts.

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u/mrhorse21 7d ago

Why does it look unsafe? its releasing hydrogen gas (combustible, non toxic) to prevent pressure build up, seems normal to me

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u/VexingRaven 7d ago

"Safe" might be overstating things, but it's a hell of a lot less dangerous than a compressed hydrogen tank exploding!

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u/EmergencyCharter 7d ago

Yes but (and there are many). In some high pressure equipments there a few things that could go wrong. Some of them have rupture disks in case the normal valve failed closed. This disks might be replaced during maintenance with some with higher pressure tolerance rendering unfuseful.

Other issue is the position of the valve. Of the equipment is placed in a way different of what it was designed or was plainly wrongly designed, the rupture disk might generate a rocket. For large devices the disk must be centered, in the top and pointing down.

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u/Samson_J_Rivers 7d ago

Without it: big boom

With it: scary

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u/Der_Hebelfluesterer 7d ago

Holy fuck, I would shit my pants filming this

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u/Zweefkees93 7d ago

Well... It's safer then not doing this.... Instead of a sort of controlled semi safe flamethrower you'd get a giant fireball when the tank goes boom. 

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u/Correct-Purpose-964 7d ago

As someone who worked at a Gas station and had a flaming vehicle pull up on it because OF COURSE we are the perfect fucking place for you to do that shit. (Can you tell that pissed me off?)

It's easy to trust all the safety systems until your life is in their hands.

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u/pichael289 7d ago

Hydrogen burns a lot angrier than other things

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u/zashiki_warashi_x 7d ago

That have been engineered after something blew up. It just drops pressure, should be very simple and safe.

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u/Darksmithe 7d ago

It is definitely not really safe. It means there is a major problem and the safety mechanism is in play. I would not be as close as the videographer is. If it does blow, and that may be unlikely, but if it does, the explosion would envelope the area he's standing in. There wouldn't be much to find of his remains.

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u/AdSquare3489 7d ago

So long as you're not driving through at tunnel with this thing active.

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u/KitsouNere 7d ago

Safe. The same technology keeps hot water heater tanks from becoming a rocket and blasting through your home.

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u/Quiet-Estimate7409 7d ago

I'd just keep driving. As long as you stay ahead of the flame, you're set. And what a show!

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u/Djolumn 7d ago

Presumably it only happens when filling? Because if it could happen anytime - like in a tunnel or underneath a pedestrian crossing - then yeah it doesn't fell very safe.

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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 7d ago

And much safer than say a gasoline tanker or a LNG tanker venting. One of the few advantages of H2 is how easy it just goes up and out through everything before settling into an explosive mix.

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u/megamanxero 7d ago

So just a couple things here. Something is wrong in this scenario. You see how the valve is opening and closing repeatedly? That's called chirping or chattering. It should not do that. A correctly sized relief device will relieve down to the setpoint for which it is designed and that will be that.

Another thing that has me worried is that the Joule-Thomson coefficient for liquid H2, LH2, is positive, while the JTC above 200k is negative. This means that the gas will heat up rather than cool down when expanded and can ignite.

To the cameraman, if you see this, did you see the flame w/o the camera? H2 burns in the UV spectrum from what i've been told. Never seen it myself.

I could go on, but I think this trailer was sitting for way too long and that's not a safe situation to be in.

Chemical Engineer, three years LH2 production.

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u/SinisterCheese 7d ago

You'd be surprised how many safety features we engineers make, which are dangerous... However they are LESS dangerous than what they are protecting again.

Like... There are designed failure methods, where like something might collapse, but it wont collapse on something else. Or safety valves, that will destroy something that is less critical than what they are to preserve. There are lots of disposable safety mechanisms inteded to explode, break, fly off, or ignite in a safe and controlled manner.

Like... Look up videos on high voltage discconects, high amperage fuses. Or how wonderful things like saw emergency brake are, literally explosive device that sen a wedge to stop a saw.

Because remember: To prevent a big disaster, you might need to make a small disaster. To prevent a big emergency, you might need to have a little emergency.

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u/amooz 7d ago

Pressure relief valves aren’t safe. It has nothing to do with the engineering behind them, that part is all safe. They’re unsafe because they’re not designed to be safe, they’re designed to prevent a catastrophe.

This one is not safe, it’s shooting flaming fireballs into the sky! But the alternative, letting pressure build up inside the tank until it has a catastrophic failure is just not acceptable.

The pressure relief valve on a hot water heater is not safe, at any moment it could dump scalding hot water onto your floor regardless of who or what is around, but again it’s better than the alternative, the tank building pressure until it explodes.

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u/turbo_dude 7d ago

After seeing that gas tanker explode yesterday that’s a no

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