Patent ID: 6878473

Claim:
A fuel cell power generating apparatus, comprising: an electromotive section comprising at least one electromotive section unit, said at least one electromotive section unit including an anode electrode comprising an anode catalyst layer, a cathode electrode and an electrolyte membrane arranged between said anode electrode and said cathode electrode; a container containing a methanol aqueous solution; an anode fluid channel through which the methanol aqueous solution is supplied to said anode electrode; a methanol aqueous solution recovery mechanism configured to bring back the excess portion of the methanol aqueous solution supplied to said anode fluid channel to said container to recover the excess portion therein; and a flow rate controller which controls the flow rate J m (mL/min) at which the methanol aqueous solution is supplied from said container, in accordance with an evaluated concentration of the methanol aqueous solution within said container, said evaluated concentration being obtained by evaluating the record of the change with operating time in the load current of the fuel cell power generating apparatus, wherein said fuel cell power generating apparatus satisfies conditions (1) to (3) given below: 2≦C m 0 ≦5 (1) L≧40 (2) N· 0.65 /L·S≦J m ≦N· 5.2 /L·S (3) where C 0 m represents the initial concentration (M) of the methanol aqueous solution in said container, L represents the thickness (μm) of said anode catalyst layer, S represents the reaction area (cm 2 ) of said anode catalyst layer, and N represents the number of the electromotive section units.