It's magic, that's what it is . . . I do live in the future, after all . . .
Wikipedia: fuel cell .
Steam
methane reforming produces (as far as I can gather) non-"Green" levels
of carbon dioxide. Also it takes energy to make the steam. The wiki
article on Fuel Cells contains this tidbit: "The Department of Energy
Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance found that, as of January 2011,
stationary fuel cells generated power at approximately $724 to $775 per
kilowatt installed.
In 2011, Bloom Energy, a major fuel cell supplier, said that its fuel
cells generated power at 9–11 cents per kilowatt-hour, including the
price of fuel, maintenance, and hardware."
I
suspect that Bloom Energy is using a catalytic process instead --
either with platinum alone or -- more likely -- in some other (?) soup of (?)
reducible metals (?) (ferric oxide, sulfur dioxide?) -- which would make the
process patentable, more economical than pure platinum, and "Greener"
to boot.
Time to buy stock in public fuel cell companies? Or is it a scam? The Wikipedia article contains this: "...as of October 2013, no public company in the industry had yet become profitable." Hmmm.