We comment on the value and nature of terms contributing to the Seebeck coefficient of a thermoelectric cell. Transported entropies of ions can be connected with thermodynamic entropies, but they cannot be compared directly to partial molar properties of ions, as they are transport properties, rather than equilibrium properties. Equilibrium thermodynamics is contained in the more general non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory as a special case, apart from that the two cannot be unified. (C) 2013 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.