In thermodynamics, near-equilibrium thermodynamics is the study of processes of systems said to be close to equilibrium. This branch of thermodynamics was created by Norwegian-born American physical chemist Lars Onsager, with two famous 1931 papers, in which near-equilibrium processes are characterized by what are called the Onsager reciprocal relations. [1] In biochemical thermodynamics, it has been suggested that near or ‘close’ to equilibrium processes are characterized by a change in the Gibbs free energy of ΔG << 1.5 kJ/mol. [2]

References
1. Procaccia, Itamar and Ross, John. (1977). “The 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry”, Science, 18 November, (pgs. 716-17).
2. Ernster, L. (1984). Bioenergetics (pg. 1). Elsevier.

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