Patent ID: 8541120

Claim:
A fuel cell system comprising: a fuel cell; a fuel gas supply portion; a fuel gas supply channel that supplies a fuel gas from the fuel gas supply portion to the fuel cell; a fuel gas circulation channel that is connected to the fuel cell and to the fuel gas supply channel and that circulates the fuel gas discharged from the fuel cell by returning the fuel gas to the fuel gas supply channel for reuse; a circulation pump provided on the fuel gas circulation channel so as to circulate the fuel gas; a temperature detection portion programmed to detect a temperature of the fuel cell system; a pump control portion programmed to drive the circulation pump; and a breakdown determination portion programmed to determine whether the circulation pump has a breakdown, wherein the breakdown determination portion is programmed to determine that the circulation pump has a breakdown if the temperature of the fuel cell system detected by the temperature detection portion is higher than or equal to a melting point of water and a rotation speed of the circulation pump driven by the pump control portion is less than a predetermined rotation speed.