Patent ID: 7556875

Claim:
A fuel cell power generation system comprising: a reforming catalyst body configured to generate a reformed gas containing hydrogen from a feed gas and water; a fuel cell configured to generate electric power by consuming the reformed gas, the fuel cell having a cathode and an anode, the cathode consuming an oxidizing gas and the anode consuming the reformed gas, the anode discharging an off gas containing hydrogen gas for discharging a combustion gas for heating the reforming catalyst body; an off gas water separator located downstream of the anode and configured to separate steam from the off gas containing hydrogen gas and to condense the separated steam into water which is discharged outside the system; an off gas heating heat exchanger located downstream of the off gas water separator and configured to heat the off gas containing hydrogen gas from the water separator by heat exchange with the combustion gas; a burner configured to combust the off gas heated by the off gas heating heat exchanger to generate the combustion gas used for heating the reforming catalyst body; and a fuel pipe through which the off gas is guided from the water separator to the burner, wherein the off gas heating heat exchanger is configured to heat the off gas flowing within the fuel pipe located downstream of the water separator.