Fall 2025-26

July 2025

BMEE402L

Dr. ARJUN SINGH K

Module 7: Mass Transfer 2
INTRODUCTION
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.
The commodity simply creeps away during redistribution,
and thus the flow is a diffusion process. 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.

kdiff is the diffusion coefficient of the medium, which is a measure of how fast a commodity diffuses
in the medium, and the negative sign is to make the flow in the positive direction a positive quantity
(note that dC/dx is a negative quantity since concentration decreases in the flow direction).

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The diffusion coefficients and thus diffusion rates of
gases depend strongly on temperature.
The diffusion rates are higher at higher temperatures.
The larger the molecular spacing, the higher the
diffusion rate.
Diffusion rate: gases > liquids > solids

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ANALOGY BETWEEN HEAT AND MASS
TRANSFER
We can develop an understanding of mass transfer in a short
time with little effort by simply drawing parallels between heat
and mass transfer.

Temperature
The driving force for mass transfer is the concentration
difference.
Both heat and mass are transferred from the more
concentrated regions to the less concentrated ones.
If there is no difference between the concentrations of a
species at different parts of a medium, there will be no mass
transfer.

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CONDUCTION Mass is transferred by conduction (called diffusion) and
convection only.

Rate of mass diffusion Fick’s law of diffusion

DAB is the diffusion coefficient (or mass

diffusivity) of the species in the mixture
CA is the concentration of the species in the
mixture

Module 7: Mass Transfer 6

HEAT GENERATION
Heat generation refers to the conversion of some form of energy such as electrical, chemical,
or nuclear energy into sensible thermal energy in the medium.
Some mass transfer problems involve chemical reactions that occur within the medium and
result in the generation of a species throughout.
Therefore, species generation is a volumetric phenomenon, and the rate of generation may
vary from point to point in the medium.
Such reactions that occur within the medium are called homogeneous reactions and are
analogous to internal heat generation.
In contrast, some chemical reactions result in the generation of a species at the surface as
a result of chemical reactions occurring at the surface due to contact between the medium
and the surroundings.
This is a surface phenomenon, and as such it needs to be treated as a boundary condition.
In mass transfer studies, such reactions are called heterogeneous reactions and are
analogous to specified surface heat flux.
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CONVECTION MASS TRANSFER
Mass convection (or convective mass transfer) is the mass transfer mechanism between a
surface and a moving fluid that involves both mass diffusion and bulk fluid motion.
Fluid motion also enhances mass transfer considerably.

In mass convection, we define a concentration boundary layer in

an analogous manner to the thermal boundary layer and define new
dimensionless numbers that are counterparts of the Nusselt and
Prandtl numbers.

Newton’s law of cooling

Rate of mass convection

hmass the mass transfer coefficient

As the surface area
Cs − C a suitable concentration difference across the
concentration boundary layer.
Module 7: Mass Transfer 8
MASS DIFFUSION
Fick’s law of diffusion states that the rate of diffusion of a chemical
species at a location in a gas mixture (or liquid or solid solution) is
proportional to the concentration gradient of that species at that
location.

On a mass basis, concentration is expressed in terms of density (or

mass concentration).

The density of a mixture at a location is equal to the sum of the

densities of its constituents at that location.

The mass fraction of a species ranges between 0 and 1, and the sum of Different ways of expressing
the mass fractions of the constituents of a mixture be equal to 1. the concentration of species A
of a binary mixture A and B

Module 7: Mass Transfer 9

On a mole basis, concentration is expressed in terms of molar Dalton's Law of Partial
concentration (or molar density), which is the amount of matter in Pressure states that the
kmol per unit volume. total pressure of a
mixture of non-reacting
ideal gases is the sum
of the partial pressures
of the individual gases.
The partial pressure of
each gas is the
pressure it would exert
Again, the mole fraction of a species ranges between 0 and 1, and if it were the only gas in
the sum of the mole fractions of the constituents of a mixture is the container.
unity, σ 𝑦𝑖 = 1

Module 7: Mass Transfer 10

A mixture of N2, O2, CO2, and CO is in a
container at 20oC with the partial pressures in
the following propositions:
PN2 : PO2 : PCO2 : PCO = 0.4 : 0.3 : 0.2 : 0.1
Calculate the molar concentrations, the mass
density, the mole fraction and the mass
fraction of each species for a total pressure of
1bar.

Module 7: Mass Transfer 11

SPECIAL CASE: IDEAL GAS MIXTURES
At low pressures, a gas or gas mixture can conveniently be approximated as an ideal gas with
negligible error.
The total pressure of a gas mixture P is equal to the sum of the partial pressures Pi of the individual
gases in the mixture..

Here Pi is called the partial pressure of species i, which is the

pressure species i would exert if it existed alone at the mixture
temperature and volume (Dalton’s law of additive pressures).
Then using the ideal gas relation PV = NRuT where Ru is the universal
gas constant for both the species i and the mixture, the pressure
fraction of species i can be expressed as

The pressure fraction of species i of an ideal gas mixture is equivalent For ideal gas mixtures,
pressure fraction of a gas is
to the mole fraction of that species and can be used in place of it in equal to its mole fraction
mass transfer analysis.

Module 7: Mass Transfer 12

FICK’S LAW OF DIFFUSION:
STATIONARY MEDIUM CONSISTING OF TWO SPECIES
Fick’s law of diffusion

Here jdiff, A is the (diffusive) mass flux of species A (mass transfer by diffusion per unit time and per
unit area normal to the direction of mass transfer, in kg/s·m2) and 𝐣𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟,𝐀
ҧ is the (diffusive) molar flux
(in kmol/s·m2).

Module 7: Mass Transfer 13

Module 7: Mass Transfer 14
Binary diffusion coefficient or
mass diffusivity, DAB: The constant
of proportionality in Fick’s law.

Module 7: Mass Transfer 15

Module 7: Mass Transfer 16
Module 7: Mass Transfer 17
1. The diffusion coefficients, in general,
are highest in gases and lowest in
solids. The diffusion coefficients of
gases are several orders of
magnitude greater than those of
liquids.
2. Diffusion coefficients increase with
temperature. The diffusion coefficient
(and thus the mass diffusion rate) of
carbon through iron during a
hardening process, for example,
increases by 6000 times as the
temperature is raised from 500°C to
1000°C.

Module 7: Mass Transfer 18

 DIFFUSION OF WATER VAPOR IN AIR
Ordinary diffusion: The primary driving mechanism of mass diffusion is the concentration gradient, and
mass diffusion due to a concentration gradient is known as the ordinary diffusion.
Temperature gradients in a medium can cause thermal diffusion (also called the soret effect), and
pressure gradients may result in pressure diffusion.
Forced diffusion: An external force field such as an electric or magnetic field applied on a mixture or
solution can be used successfully to separate electrically charged or magnetized molecules (as in an
electrolyte or ionized gas) from the mixture.
Knudsen diffusion: When the pores of a porous solid such as silica-gel are smaller than the mean free
path of the gas molecules, the molecular collisions may be negligible and a free molecule flow may be
initiated.
Surface diffusion: When the size of the gas molecules is comparable to the pore size, adsorbed
molecules move along the pore walls.
Brownian motion: Particles whose diameter is under 0.1 nm such as mist and soot particles act like
large molecules, and the diffusion process of such particles due to the concentration gradient is called
Brownian motion.
Module 7: Mass Transfer 19
EQUIMOLAR COUNTER DIFFUSION

Module 7: Mass Transfer 20

Thank You

Module 7: Mass Transfer 21