A hydrogen leak caught fire at BASF’s Ludwigshafen chemical complex in Germany at around 10:40 pm on Tuesday (April 23), before being quickly extinguished by the company’s fire department.
The German chemical giant said in a statement there was a hydrogen leak with “brief ignition” in a plant in the north part of the BASF SE factory.
“The BASF factory fire department was on duty and stopped the product leak,” the BASF statement said. “The turbo extinguisher was used for a short time.”
The plant was shut down with excess gases burned using the flare.
BASF has confirmed to H2 View the leakage occurred on a reactor head. While not disclosing any further details about the plant in question, the company said the affected part of the plant remains shut down.
The cause of the leak and ignition are still yet to be determined. BASF said there were no injuries.
BASF said its environmental measurement vehicles found “slightly elevated readings” in the vicinity of the deployment site. It said authorities have been informed.
As the “largest” integrated chemical complex in the world, the Ludwigshafen site produces a range of products for the petrochemicals, automotive, agricultural, nutrition sectors and more.
In 2023, BASF revealed it would close several plants at the site to lower fixed costs by around €200m ($213m) per year by the end of 2026.
Despite being widely used in various industrial applications – particularly chemical production – hydrogen has a wide range of flammable concentrations in the air and can be ignited more easily than gasoline or natural gas.
As hydrogen has become a larger part of energy transition discussions, its safe use has come under the microscope, with various key players and associations stressing the need for best practices.
