Patent ID: 6841286

Claim:
A fuel cell system, comprising: a fuel cell for generating electric power from a fuel gas and an oxidant gas, the fuel gas containing hydrogen; a fuel generator for generating the fuel gas from a feedstock; a fuel supplying conduit for supplying the fuel gas produced by said fuel generator to said fuel cell; a fuel exhausting conduit for introducing a remaining fuel gas from said fuel cell to a combustion chamber of said fuel generator, the remaining fuel gas having not been consumed by said fuel cell; a first bypass conduit for connecting said fuel supplying conduit with said fuel exhausting conduit; a second bypass conduit for supplying the feedstock to said fuel exhausting conduit; and a gas pathway switching device A installed at a junction of said fuel supplying conduit and said first bypass conduit; a junction of said second bypass conduit and said fuel exhausting conduit being at an upper stream side of the flow of the remaining fuel gas than a junction of said first bypass conduit and said fuel exhausting conduit.