A qualitative description is presented of pervaporation which discusses the initial preferential sorption into the membrane, diffusion of liquid, phase transition from liquid to vapor phase, followed by diffusion of vapors and fast desorption from the other side of the membrane. The overall separation of each pervaporation step was calculated in terms of separation factor a. The results show that in the case of hydrophilic membranes (i.e., dense polyamide-6 membrane and ion-exchange membrane PESS-1) and water-ethanol mixtures, the phase transition step decreases the overall separation. Also, diffusion through the membrane is unfavorable to water at a low concentration range.