Patent ID: 7588855

Claim:
A fuel cell assembly comprising: a fuel cell stack formed by laminating a plurality of cells; plus and minus current extraction sections, the current extraction sections extracting current generated by the fuel cell stack and sandwiching the fuel cell stack with respect to the direction of lamination, each current extraction section comprising a current extraction plate which is fixed to an end cell positioned on an end of the fuel cell stack so as to extract the generated current, and an end plate for uniformly binding the cells of the fuel cell stack; and a passage allowing flow of oxygen gas and hydrogen gas during startup of the fuel cell stack at a temperature below freezing, provided for at least one of the current extraction plate and the end plate, wherein a catalyst for combusting the gas is applied to a wall face of the passage and wherein the passage passes only the current extraction sections and does not supply the fuel cell stack with the oxygen gas and hydrogen gas.