Patent ID: 8728675

Claim:
A method of operating a fuel cell system comprising: supplying a power generation material gas to a reformer; generating a fuel gas from the power generation material gas by a reforming reaction at the reformer; generating electrical power at a fuel cell by supplying the fuel gas to an anode of the fuel cell and supplying an oxidizing gas to a cathode of the fuel cell; stopping power generation of the fuel cell; filling the cathode of the fuel cell with the power generation material gas and keeping the power generation material gas in the cathode after stopping the power generation; supplying the oxidizing gas to the cathode and discharging the power generation material gas filled in the cathode from the cathode by the supplied oxidizing gas after keeping the power generation material gas in the cathode; supplying the discharged power generation material gas to a combustor; and combusting, at the combustor, the power generation material gas discharged from the cathode.