Patent ID: 8142941

Claim:
A power supply system comprising: a chemical reacting section that receives a power generation fuel and reforms the power generation fuel by a chemical reaction to generate a power generation gas containing hydrogen; a temperature measuring section that measures a temperature of the chemical reacting section; a power generating section that receives the power generation gas, reacts a part of the power generation gas to generate electrical energy, supplies the generated electrical energy to a load, and discharges an unreacted component in the power generation gas as an off-gas; a heating section that receives the off-gas, uses the off-gas to generate a thermal energy, and heats the chemical reacting section; an output control section that controls an amount of electrical energy output from the power generating section; and a control section that is programmed to increase/decrease the amount of electrical energy output from the power generating section by the output control section to maintain the temperature of the chemical reacting section which is set based on the thermal energy generated by the heating section at a predetermined temperature; wherein: the control section is programmed to control the amount of electrical energy output from the power generating section based on the temperature of the chemical reacting section measured by the temperature measuring section, the output control section controls a current value of an output current that corresponds to the amount of electrical energy output from the power generating section, in accordance with the control of the amount of electrical energy, the control section includes a current value judging section that is programmed to detect the current value of the output current and to judge whether the detected current value of the output current falls within a range where the power generating section demonstrates specific power generation characteristics, the control section is programmed to compare the detected current value of the output current with a preset minimum current value when the temperature of the chemical reacting section measured by the temperature measuring section is lower than the predetermined temperature; and the control section is programmed to compare the detected current value of the output current with a preset maximum current value when the temperature of the chemical reacting section measured by the temperature measuring section is higher than the predetermined temperature.