Patent ID: 8277999

Claim:
A fuel cell system comprising: a fuel cell; a gas supply passage that supplies gas to the fuel cell; a gas exhaust passage to which gas from the fuel cell is exhausted; a gas sending apparatus that sends gas to the fuel cell via the gas supply passage; a residual water amount calculating part programmed to calculate an amount of residual water in the fuel cell system that includes the fuel cell, the gas supply passage, and the gas exhaust passage, based on an operating condition of the fuel cell and an environmental condition under which the fuel cell is operated; a judging part programmed to judge whether or not at least one state quantity value that includes a generating duration of the fuel cell, an amount of electric power generated by the fuel cell, and an amount of temperature change of a coolant during electrical generation of the fuel cell is equal to or less than a prescribed threshold value for judging whether or not a short trip has occurred; an operating time calculating part programmed to calculate a time for operating the gas sending apparatus for decreasing the residual water amount to a prescribed value, according to the operating condition and the environmental condition; and a control part programmed to operate the gas sending apparatus until the end of the operating time, wherein the operating time calculating part calculates a different operating time depending on whether or not, according to the judging part, one of the state quantity values is equal to or less than a prescribed threshold value.