In this study, a newly developed zero-dimensional electrochemical model was used for modeling and controlling proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance. Calibration of the model was performed with measurements from the fuel cell stack. Subsequently, a compressor and a humidifier on the cathode side were sized and added to the existing model. The aim of this work was to model the PEMFC stack and balance of plant (BoP) components in detail to show the influence of operating parameters such as cathode pressure, stack temperature and cathode stoichiometric ratio on the performance and efficiency of the overall system compared to the original model using a newly developed real-time model. The model managed to predict the profile of essential parameters, such as temperature, pressure, power, voltage, etc. The most important conclusions from this particular case are: the cell power output is only slightly changed with the variations in stoichiometric ratio of the cathode side and adding an external compressor is valid only for high current applications, but in those cases, there is 10–22% power gain. Stack temperature is a very influential parameter. Optimal temperatures were determined through design of experiments (DoE) and for this case are in the 40–60 °C range, where for low current applications lower temperatures are better due lower activation loss (8% difference between 80 °C and 40 °C at 20 A current). For high current applications, due to lower ohmic losses, higher temperatures are desirable.

Experimental investigation of the thermal properties of ice reinforced with sawdust is presented in this paper. Mechanical properties of pykrete are fairly covered in literature, while there are no data about its thermal properties. For the purposes of this examination, ice made of 215 ml of tap water was reinforced by adding 35 g of sawdust. Transient Plane Source (TPS) method was employed to measure the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity in a temperature range from -15 °C to -33 °C. Blocks of pykrete were placed in an expanded polystyrene (EPS) box in the freezer where the measurements took place. Thermal conductivity of pykrete was observed to vary from 1.64 Wm−1K−1 at -15 °C to 1.75 Wm−1K−1 at -33 °C while thermal diffusivity in the same temperature interval exhibited growth at a larger scale, from 0.88 mm2s−1 to 1.10 mm2s−1. Measured values showed an average decrease of approx. 21% in thermal conductivity and approx. 23% in thermal diffusivity when compared with results obtained for frozen pure tap water. Measured thermal constants were shown to be similar to the ones obtained in literature for concrete.