Governing equations for evolution of concentration and temperature in three-component systems were derived in the framework of classical irreversible thermodynamics using Onsager's variational principle and were presented for solvent/solvent/polymer and solvent/polymer/polymer systems. The derivation was developed from the Gibbs equation of equilibrium thermodynamics using the local equilibrium hypothesis, Onsager reciprocal relations and Prigogine's theorem for systems in mechanical equilibrium. It was shown that the details of mass and heat diffusion phenomena in a ternary system are completely expressed by a 3 x 3 matrix whose entries are mass diffusion coefficients (4 entries), thermal diffusion coefficients (2 entries) and three entries that describe the evolution of heat in the system. The entries of the diffusion matrix are related to the elements of Onsager matrix that are bounded by some constraints to satisfy the positive definiteness of entropy production in the system. All the elements of diffusion matrix were expressed in terms of derivatives of exchange chemical potentials of the components with respect to concentration and temperature. The spinodal curves of ternary polymer solutions were derived from the governing equations and their correctness was checked by the Hessian of free energy density. Moreover, it was proved that setting cross-diffusion coefficients to zero results in a contradiction, and the governing equations without cross-diffusion coefficients do not express the actual phase behavior of the system. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.