Patent ID: 7476098

Claim:
A warm up device for a catalytic reactor for use with a fuel cell power plant which comprises a plurality of catalytic reactors each of which contains a catalyst, and a gas passage for connecting the catalytic reactors in series, the warm up device comprising: a burner for producing combustion gas by burning fuel in order to warm the catalysts upon start up of the fuel cell power plant, the burner comprising a lean burn burner for burning a mixture of fuel and air at a larger air-fuel ratio than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio; combustion gas supply passages for distributing the combustion gas individually to the catalytic reactors; and a heat amount supply adjustment mechanism for reducing differences among the reactors in relation to a timing at which the catalyst reaches an activation temperature, the heat amount supply adjustment mechanism comprising a valve which is capable of supplying air to one of the combustion gas supply passages.