Established procedures for complex distillation synthesis employ detailed models that are unable to function for high-level screening. in this article, a new approach is presented in the form of Conceptual Programming for the preliminary screening of complex distillation systems. Conceptual Programming employs a generic supertask representation that replaces the need of superstructures. Tasks stand for simple distillation columns and hybrids represent complex distillation arrangements. A supertask accounts for all possible configurations without introducing representation and modelling difficulties. The basic tasks are then modelled using appropriate shortcut or semi-rigorous methods. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem is formulated to obtain the optimum structure and performance targets. The strengths of the approach are highlighted with a light alcohol separation problem.