Patent ID: 7562731

Claim:
An electric power generation system to be mounted on a vehicle with an internal combustion engine as a driving source, the internal combustion engine consuming a vehicle fuel obtained from a first fuel involving one of alcohol and ether, the electric power generation system comprising: separation means configured to separate a second fuel from the first fuel; and a fuel cell configured to generate electric power by electric chemical reaction between the second fuel and an oxidant, wherein the second fuel to be used in the fuel cell is alcohol and the separation means separates and extracts the second fuel from the first fuel by phase separation of the second fuel by adding water to the first fuel, the second fuel is separated by the separation means and deposited at a bottom part of the separation means and the first fuel is deposited at a upper part of the separation means over the second fuel, and the separation means comprises a funnel part formed at the bottom part thereof through which the second fuel is supplied to the fuel cell.