A new configuration of a reactive distillation (RD) process is proposed to break the ethanol (EtOH)/water azeotrope using Hysys process software. This contribution describes the influences of the reaction trays and feed-inlet locations of the RD column on the simulation results. The results show that high purities of ethylene glycol (EG) and EtOH are simultaneously obtained by this novel technique, which lead to more profits in the RD process. Remarkable, the results show that the optimum number of reaction trays is 17 and introducing both feeds to the 13th stage leads to a minimum energy demand. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.