Turbine Bearing Housing Fire Accident Due To hydrogen inflow into nitrogen line of dry gas seal

Abstract

Fire incidents occurred in the turbine bearing housing at every start-upsince the original wet type seal in the compressor was replaced with a dry gas seal(DGS). The first investigation focused on leakage of the lube oil in the turbinebearing housing. However, despite various measures, the fires continued to occur.• After repeated attempts to find a root cause, it was realized there were incorrectoperation procedures and valve passing problem in the DGS, and which causedhydrogen inflow into the nitrogen line(separation gas) of the compressor DGSand finally migration into turbine bearing housing.This case study details the root cause analysis results and the countermeasures.