Patent ID: 8828612
Filing Date: 2014-09-09
Classification: H01M,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A fuel cell system including a cell unit generating power by separating hydrogen-containing gas and oxygen-containing gas in flow contact with each other, and a recirculation mechanism to recirculate hydrogen-containing off-gas discharged from the cell unit back to the cell unit, comprising: a flow rate determination mechanism configured to determine whether or not the hydrogen-containing gas fed to the cell unit is less than a predetermined flow rate; a gas feeding pressure varying mechanism configured to cause the pressure of the hydrogen-containing gas to vary by increasing or decreasing the pressure intermittently when the hydrogen-containing gas fed to the cell unit is determined to be less than the predetermined flow rate; a bypass passage provided at the feeding passage for bypassing the recirculation mechanism; a three-way valve to switch to the bypass passage hydrogen-containing gas fed toward the cell unit; a temperature sensor to detect a temperature of the cell unit; a cell temperature determination mechanism configured to determine whether or not the cell unit temperature detected by the temperature sensor has entered a predetermined temperature region including a freezing point temperature; and a bypass feeding mechanism to switch and feed the hydrogen-containing gas fed toward the cell unit via the three-way valve to the bypass passage when the cell unit temperature has been determined to enter the predetermined temperature range containing freezing point temperature.