Improving the efficiency of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is the main problem should be solved for the commercialization of PEMFC. In this paper, the efficiency characteristic of PEMFC system under load and stack temperature variation is analyzed through theoretical modeling and experimental verification. For high efficiency operation of PEMFC system, the maximum efficiency control strategy (MECS) is proposed for thermal management of PEMFC system. According to the efficiency characteristics of PEMFC system, the optimal efficiency trajectory of system is obtained under maximum efficiency optimization (MEO). As PEMFC system is a nonlinear system with the characteristics of time-variation, and uncertainty, a constrained generalized predictive control (CGPC) is proposed to realize realtime optimal efficiency trajectory tracking. The MECS based on MEO and CGPC is implemented on-line, experimentally validated on the established H-300 open-cathode PEMFC system. The experimental result shows better tracking ability compared with PID control and testifies the validity of MECS for increasing the system efficiency. Therefore, the proposed MECS can provide better system dynamic response and higher system efficiency. KEYWORDS constrained generalized predictive control (CGPC), maximum efficiency control strategy (MECS), maximum efficiency optimization (MEO), Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), thermal management 1 | INTRODUCTIONWith the rapid development of science and technology, energy shortage and environmental pollution have attracted widely attention in the last decade. Hence, the development and utilization of clean and renewable energy become the inevitable trend in the world [1,2]. As the renewable energy such as solar and wind have the characteristic of intermittency and uncertainty, it is generally difficult to match the energy production with the energy demand in application [3,4]. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce hydrogen energy as the transit energy to help matching the energy production and energy demand. As an energy storage medium, hydrogen energy cross the fields of electricity, heat and fuel, which can promote the integration of energy supply and improve ---This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.