Patent ID: 8227126

Claim:
A fuel cell system comprising: a fuel cell stack formed by stacking a plurality of fuel cells, said fuel cells each being formed by stacking an electrolyte electrode assembly and a separator, said electrolyte electrode assembly including an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte interposed between said anode and said cathode; a heat exchanger for heating an oxygen-containing gas using a heat medium before the oxygen-containing gas is supplied to said fuel cell stack; a reformer for reforming a raw fuel chiefly containing hydrocarbon to produce a fuel gas to be supplied to said fuel cell stack; a combustor for burning the raw fuel and an exhaust gas discharged from said fuel cell stack after consumption in power generation reaction to produce a combustion gas as the heat medium; and a casing containing said fuel cell stack, said heat exchanger, said reformer, and said combustor, wherein a fluid unit at least including said heat exchanger and said reformer is disposed only at one end of said fuel cell stack in said casing; and a combustion gas outlet of said combustor is directly opened to a combustion gas inlet of said fluid unit.