Two-dimensional, double diffusion, natural convection in a rectangular enclosure filled with binary fluid saturating porous media is investigated numerically. Multiple motions are driven by the external temperature and concentration differences imposed across horizontal walls with the simultaneous presence of discrete heat and contaminant sources. The general Brinkman-extended Darcy model is adopted to formulate the fluid flow in the cavity. The fluid, heat and moisture transport through the isotropic porous layer are analyzed using the streamlines, heatlines and masslines, and the heat and mass transfer potentials are also explained by the variations of overall Nusselt and Sherwood numbers. The numerical simulations presented here span a wide range of the main parameters (thermal Rayleigh numbers, strip pitches and Darcy number) in the domain of destabilizing solutal buoyancy forces. It is shown that the heat and mass transfer potential call be promoted or inhibited, depending strongly oil the permeability of porous medium, the strip pitch, the thermal and solutal Rayleigh numbers. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.