A fuel cell using a catalytic combustor to exchange heat

A fuel cell preferably includes a fuel cell stack (105) for receiving reactants and conducting a reaction to produce an electrical current, a catalytic combustor (107) for combusting reactants that pass un-reacted through the fuel cell stack (105), and a heat exchanger (104) for exchanging heat from an exhaust of the catalytic combustor (107) to the reactants received by the fuel cell stack (105).