| abstract |
PURPOSE:To prevent noble metal catalyst from coagulation by installing an auxiliary load circuit in addition to a regular load, purging the inside of a cell with inactive gas, increasing temperature with the auxiliary load circuit, and changing to fuel and oxidizing agent to start power generation. CONSTITUTION:In a fuel cell having electrolyte 2 between a fuel electrode 1 and an air electrode 3, an auxiliary load circuit 15 is installed in addition to a main load 14 and the inside of the cell is purged with inactive gas before starting of power generation, then the auxiliary load circuit 15 is connected to increase temperature and inactive gas is switched to fuel and oxidizing agent. When operation is stopped, the auxiliary load circuit is connected before disconnecting of the main load 14 and fuel and oxidizing agent are switched to inactive gas and the cell is cooled, then the main load 14 is disconnected. Therefore, unit cell voltage in start and stop of power generation can be controlled to 0.85V or less and coagulation of electrode catalyst such as platinum is suppressed and deterioration of catalyst activity is prevented. |