In this paper, nonlinear grey-box model and model predictive control (MPC) of a cascade-type polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack are presented. The aim of this study is to track the desired voltage trajectory of the dead-end cascade-type PEM fuel cell stack. The stack is integrated with humidifiers and water separators, and both anode side and cathode side of the stack operate in a dead-end mode. The framework of this paper is threefold: i) nonlinear grey-box modeling of the cascade-type PEM fuel cell stack with integrated humidifiers and water separators and validation of the obtained model, ii) linearizing and proposing model order reduction (MOR) by using singular perturbation method, and iii) designing model predictive controller to attain output tracking. Performance of the controller is validated off-line through experimental tests carried out on 400 W cascade-type PEM fuel cell stack consisting of 4 cells. Results show that the proposed controller tracks the desired trajectories with a high accuracy. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.