FUEL CELL PERFORMANCE ESTIMATION DEVICE

A fuel cell performance estimation device includes (A) a first means configured to sequentially acquire a voltage V[i] and current I[i] of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell at a time[i] and store them in a memory, (B) a second means configured to calculate a catalyst potential V[i] of a cathode at the time[i], calculate an effective surface utilization factor θ[i] of noble metal-based catalyst particles at the time[i] using the V[i], and store them in the memory, (C) a third means configured to calculate an electrode catalyst surface area A[i] at the time[i] and an activity SA[i] per surface area of the particles using the V[i], the V[i], and/or integration time of power generation, and store them in the memory, and (D) a fourth means configured to calculate an estimated value IV[i] of IV characteristics using the θ[i], the A[i] and the SA[i] and store the IV[i] in the memory.