Patent ID: 8563193

Claim:
A fuel cell system comprising: n (n is a natural number of 2 or more) fuel cell modules operated for power generation by electrochemical reactions of a fuel gas and an oxygen-containing gas; and a control device for controlling a power generation amount of each of the fuel cell modules; wherein an m-th (1≦m<n: m is an natural number) fuel cell module comprises: an m-th exhaust gas discharge channel for discharging an exhaust gas from the m-th fuel cell module; and an m-th exhaust gas supply channel branched from the m-th exhaust gas discharge channel, for supplying the exhaust gas from the m-th fuel cell module to an (m+1)-th fuel cell module for warming up the (m+1)-th fuel cell module, and wherein the control device comprises: a fuel utilization ratio controller that is programmed to control a fuel utilization ratio of the m-th fuel cell module based on the power generation amount of the m-th fuel cell module and a temperature of the (m+1)-th fuel cell module; an exhaust gas flow rate controller that is programmed to control a flow rate of the exhaust gas supplied from the m-th exhaust gas discharge channel to the (m+1)-th fuel cell module through the m-th exhaust gas supply channel; and a power generation amount controller that is programmed to control the power generation amounts of the m-th fuel cell module and the (m+1)-th fuel cell module.