This paper presents results of continuous feed and total reflux distillation experiments carried out with a common type and size structured packing using two- and three-component mixtures of common alcohols and water. With the binary mixture, the packing performed slightly better than with a three-component Mixture. Surprisingly, the continuous operation performance appeared slightly better than in case of the total reflux operation. Delft model predictions of the overall mass transfer efficiency appeared to be conservative enough around the operating/design point load of the packing in question. The composition profiles measured with the three-component mixture were used to validate the rate-based (non-equilibrium) model developed at the Nagoya Institute of Technology, which appeared to be highly accurate, but also sensitive to the choice of the predictive method for the interfacial area. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.