Methods and apparatus for decoupling reactant activation and reaction completion. Various embodiments of the present disclosure leverage electrodynamic inversion principles to provide fuel cell-like operation. In one exemplary embodiment a fuel cell-like apparatus is configured to: create reactant ions (e.g., fuel ions, oxidant ions, etc.) in isolation, transport the reactant ions to a reaction interface, enable a chemical reaction, harvest the resulting electrical current, and eliminate the exhaust products. The exemplary fuel cell-like device decouples the reactants from directly powering the load. Notably, the redox reaction is allowed to proceed at a reaction interface rather than directly at the anode and cathode.