Book excerpt: After an overview of the fundamentals, limitations, and scope of reactive distillation, this book uses rigorous models for steady-state design and dynamic analysis of different types of reactive distillation columns and quantitatively compares the economics of reactive distillation columns with conventional multi-unit processes. It goes beyond traditional steady-state design that primarily considers the capital investment and energy costs when analyzing the control structure and the dynamic robustness of disturbances, and discusses how to maximize the economic and environmental benefits of reactive distillation technology.