Patent ID: 6991663

Claim:
A hydrogen-rich gas supply device for supplying hydrogen-rich gas to a fuel cell stack, comprising: a reformer which generates reformate gas comprising hydrogen from fuel; a carbon monoxide oxidizer comprising a catalyst which oxidizes carbon monoxide contained in the reformate gas; an oxidizing agent supply mechanism which supplies an oxidizing agent to the carbon monoxide oxidizer; a start-up combustor which promotes combustion of a gaseous mixture of hydrocarbon and air having a richer mixing ratio than a stoichiometric mixing ratio, the richer mixing ratio corresponding to a state where an amount of hydrocarbon in the mixture is greater than an amount of hydrocarbon which can be burned with an amount of air in the mixture, to generate a hot gas comprising combustible components and supplies the hot gas to the carbon monoxide oxidizer; a sensor which detects a temperature of the catalyst; and a controller functioning to: determine whether or not the temperature of the catalyst is higher than a predetermined temperature, and stop the start-up combustor supplying hot gas to the carbon monoxide oxidizer when the catalyst temperature is higher than the predetermined temperature.