It is a common observation that whenever there is an imbalance of a commodity in a medium,

nature tends to redistribute it until a “balance” or “equality” is established. This tendency is often
referred to as the driving force, which is the mechanism behind many naturally occurring transport
phenomena, we can say that the flow of a commodity is always in the direction of decreasing
concentration; that is, from the region of high concentration to the region of low concentration

The rate of flow of the commodity is proportional to the concentration gradient dC/dx, which is
the change in the concentration C per unit length in the flow direction x, and the area A normal
to flow direction and is expressed as
Flow rate α (Normal area) (Concentration gradient)
Here the proportionality constant kdiff is the diffusion coefficient of
the medium, which is a measure of how fast a commodity diffuses
in the medium, (note that dC/dx is a negative quantity since
concentration decreases in the flow direction). You may recall that
Fourier law of heat conduction, Ohms law of electrical conduction,
and Newton law of viscosity are all in the form of Equation
To understand the diffusion process better, consider a tank that is
divided into two equal parts by a partition. Initially, the left half of
the tank contains nitrogen N2 gas while the right half contains air
(about 21 percent O2 and 79 percent N2) at the same temperature
and pressure. The O2 and N2 molecules are indicated by dark and
light circles, respectively. When the partition is removed, we know
that the N2 molecules will start diffusing into the air while the O2
molecules diffuse into the N2, as shown in Figure. If we wait long
enough, we will have a homogeneous mixture of N2 and O2 in the
tank.
Mass transfer can also occur in liquids and solids as well as in gases. For example, a cup of water
left in a room will eventually evaporate as a result of water molecules diffusing into the air
(liquid-to-gas mass transfer).Apiece of solid CO2 (dry ice) will also get smaller and smaller in
time as the CO2 molecules diffuse into the air (solid-to-gas mass transfer). A spoon of sugar in a
cup of coffee will eventually move up and sweeten the coffee although the sugar molecules are
much heavier than the water molecules, and the molecules of a colored pencil inserted into a glass
of water will diffuse into the water as evidenced by the gradual spread of color in the water (solid-
to-liquid mass transfer)
ANALOGY BETWEEN HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER
Temperature
The driving force for heat transfer is the temperature
difference. In contrast, the driving force for mass transfer is
the concentration difference. We can view temperature as a
measure of “heat concentration,” and thus a high temperature
region as one that has a high heat concentration. Therefore,
both heat and mass are transferred from the more
concentrated regions to the less concentrated ones. If there is
no temperature difference between two regions, then there is
no heat transfer. Likewise, if there is no difference between
the concentrations of a species at different parts of a
medium, there will be no mass transfer.
Conduction
You will recall that heat is transferred by conduction, convection, and radiation. Mass, however, is
transferred by conduction (called diffusion) and convection only, and there is no such thing as
“mass radiation”

The rate of heat conduction in a direction x is proportional to the temperature gradient dT/dx in
that direction and is expressed by Fourier’s law of heat conduction as

Likewise, the rate of mass diffusion mdiff of a chemical species A in a stationary medium in the
direction x is proportional to the concentration gradient dC/dx in that direction and is expressed
by Fick’s law of diffusion by;
Where DAB is the diffusion coefficient (or mass diffusivity) of the species in the mixture and CA is
the concentration of the species in the mixture at that location. It can be shown that the differential
equations for both heat conduction and mass diffusion are of the same form. Therefore, the
solutions of mass diffusion equations can be obtained from the solutions of corresponding heat
conduction equations for the same type of boundary conditions
Convection
The rate of heat convection for external flow was expressed conveniently by Newton law of
cooling as Qconv = hconv As (Ts - T∞)
Where hconv is the heat transfer coefficient, As is the
surface area, and Ts - T∞ is the temperature difference
across the thermal boundary layer. Likewise, the rate of
mass convection can be expressed as;

Where hmass is the mass transfer coefficient, As is the surface

area, and Cs - C∞ is a suitable concentration difference across
the concentration boundary layer.