This paper introduces a conceptual design of a combined scroll expander-compressor unit for a fuel cell. Since air discharged out of the fuel cell stack has still high pressure energy, some power can be extracted from the air by directing it to pass through an expanding device. Such extracted power can be used to drive an auxiliary compressor. For this purpose, a scroll type expander coupled to a scroll type compressor was designed for a 1kW-class fuel cell. The orbiting scroll members of the expander and the compressor were made to share three of common drive shafts installed in the mid frame plate. Performance analysis for the combined expander-compressor unit showed that the installation of this unit could reduce the auxiliary power consumption in the fuel cell by about 42%.