Patent attributes
A temperature sensor of a fuel cell system detects, as a start-up time temperature, the temperature of a fuel cell stack or the outside temperature at the time of starting operation. A memory stores a plurality of current limitation patterns. A current limiting unit selects a current limitation pattern based on the detected start-up time temperature, and limits electrical current collected from the fuel cell stack based on the selected current limitation pattern and the temperature during operation of the fuel cell stack detected by the temperature sensor. A threshold value for a period until the temperature of the fuel cell stack reaches a reference temperature is set to be smaller as the start-up time temperature at which the current limitation pattern is selected from the plurality of current limitation patterns becomes lower.
