Based on theoretical considerations and economically evaluated case studies for ternary mixtures it is demonstrated that the Petlyuk configuration and the dividing wall column scheme are not superior to the energy integrated configurations even in energy savings. Generally we can state that the sloppy separation path with external energy integration is always capable of achieving as much energy savings as that of the direct column coupling configurations. Short-cut estimation for the exergy losses is also outlined. This estimation prefers exergically the direct coupling in some areas but detailed studies do not confirm this result.