Mass transfer is the net movement of mass from one location, usually meaning stream, phase, fraction or component, to another. Mass transfer occurs in many processes, such as
absorption,
evaporation,
adsorption,
drying,
precipitation,
membrane filtration, and
distillation. Mass transfer is used by different scientific disciplines for different processes and mechanisms. The phrase is commonly used in
engineering for physical processes that involve
diffusive and
convective transport of
chemical species within
physical systems.