Patent ID: 7086246

Claim:
A cooling apparatus for a fuel cell capable of not only cooling a stack main body of the fuel cell by cooling with evaporation of a refrigerant but also warming up the stack main body, comprising a cooling circuit having: a compressor for compressing a gaseous refrigerant; an external heat exchanger arranged on a downstream side of the compressor and for liquefying the compressed refrigerant during a cooling operation of a fuel cell system including the fuel cell; a pressure-reducing means arranged on a downstream side of the external heat exchanger during the cooling operation; and an accumulator for storing the refrigerant having cooled the stack main body; wherein a refrigerant path of the stack main body is connected to the cooling circuit between the pressure-reducing means and the accumulator; wherein a four-way valve is arranged so as to be connected to and to be interposed in both a first refrigerant piping between the compressor and the external heat exchanger and a second refrigerant piping between the stack main body and the accumulator, in the cooling circuit; and wherein the four-way valve then introduces the refrigerant from the compressor to the external heat exchanger during the cooling operation and to the refrigerant path of the stack main body during a warming-up operation of the fuel cell.