Patent ID: 7101531

Claim:
A fuel reforming system having a reformer for reforming fuel to produce a reformate gas containing hydrogen (H 2 ) gas and carbon monoxide (CO) gas; a shift converter for reacting carbon monoxide contained in the reformate gas with water (H 2 O) to produce hydrogen; a CO oxidizer which removes CO gas from the reformate gas discharged from the shift converter and supplies the reformate gas to equipment using hydrogen gas; a startup combustor for supplying combustion gas to the reformer, the shift converter and the CO oxidizer so as to warm-up the fuel reforming system; and a gas passage allowing flow of combustion gas/reformate gas, the gas passage extending to the equipment using hydrogen gas from the startup combustor through the reformer, the shift converter and the CO oxidizer; the fuel reforming system comprising: a first fuel supply device for supplying fuel to the startup combustor; a second fuel supply device for supplying fuel to the reformer; an air supply device for supplying air to the startup combustor; a spark plug for igniting fuel supplied to the startup combustor; an NOx trap disposed between the startup combustor and the equipment using hydrogen gas, the NOx trap adsorbing nitrogen oxides in the combustion gas; and a controller for controlling a warm-up operation of the fuel reforming system, the controller having functions of: commanding the air supply device to supply air to the startup combustor; commanding the first fuel supply device to supply fuel to the startup combustor; commanding the spark plug to ignite fuel in the startup combustor so as to initiate combustion in the startup combustor; controlling a flow amount of air supplied to the startup combustor from the air supply device and a flow amount of fuel supplied to the startup combustor from the first fuel supply device, in response to a temperature of the NOx trap; and commanding the first fuel supply device to stop supplying fuel to the startup combustor after a first predetermined time has elapsed after initiating combustion, and then commanding the second fuel supply device to supply fuel to the reformer.