Book excerpt: In a reactive distillation column, both the chemical conversion and the distillative separation of the product mixture are carried out simultaneously. Through this integrative strategy, chemical equilibrium limitations can be overcome, higher selectivities can be achieved and heat of reaction can be directly used for distillation. Increased process efficiency and reduction of investments and operational costs are the direct results of this approach. Highly renowned international experts from both industry and academia review the state-of-the-art and the future directions in application, design, analysis and control of Reactive Distillation processes. Part I surveys various industrial applications and covers both established large scale processes as well as new chemical reaction schemes with high future potential. Part II provides the vital details for analysis of reactive phase equilibria, and discusses the importance of chemical reaction kinetics, while Part III focuses on identifying feasible column configurations and designing their internal structure. Analysis and control of the complex dynamic and steady-state behavior of reactive distillation processes are described in Part IV. Reactive Distillation - a very promising alternative to conventional reaction-distillation flow schemes.