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The three-dimensional structure and composition of a PEMFC catalyst layer (CL) define this component as a random heterogeneous material. During the manufacturing process of CLs, agglomerates form composed of primary components plus a number of pores of a variety of sizes. These structural features of the CL allow us to define internal substructures at different scale levels, and with that, we can establish a scaling strategy for numerical simulation. This work presents an analytical scaling method to determine electronic and ionic conduction efficiency in a whole PEMFC catalyst layer defined by internal substructures at three scale levels. The effective conductive area and effective conductive length of a subdomain are used to estimate a conduction efficiency of an element formed by subdomains of smaller scales. The effect of porosity and ionomer load over conduction efficiency can be quantified. The case …