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Endoreversible thermodynamics is a theory for the (approximate) description of thermodynamic non-equilibrium systems, which allows us to capture the ever present irreversibilities of real processes. For instance in heat engines the dissipation due to finite heat transport capabilities, as well as the resulting limitations in the energy fluxes, can be incorporated into the theory. It has thus been very successful in closing the gap between observed and theoretically predicted efficiencies. Here an extension of the theory is provided, with which chemical reactions can be included in the formalism. This opens up a wide field of applications for endoreversible modeling and the investigation of dissipative processes, for instance in fuel cells or batteries.

The final Tycho Catalogue (ESA 1997b) has been derived from 37 months of observations with the star mapper of the astrometric satellite Hipparcos. The Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA 1997a) with about 120,000 stars is the result of the main Hipparcos mission and has, e.g., been described by Kovalevsky et al. (1995). Both catalogues will be published in 1997.

Fuel cells are known for high efficiencies in converting chemical energy into electrical energy. Nonetheless, the processes taking place in a fuel cell still possess a number of irreversibilities that limit the power output to values below the reversible limit. To analyze these, we developed a model that captures the main irreversibilities occurring inside a proton exchange membrane or polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. We used the methods of endoreversible thermodynamics, which enable us to study the entropy production of the different sources of irreversibility in detail. Additionally, performance measures like efficiency and power output can be calculated with such a model, and the influence of different parameters, such as temperature and pressure, can be easily investigated. The comparison of the model predictions with realistic fuel cell data shows that the functional dependencies of the fuel cell characteristics can be captured quite well.

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