Distillation is a process with very low thermodynamic efficiency and it is also responsible for the highest consumption of global energy in industrial plants. The motivation for the study presented in this paper is to evaluate the possible reduction in energy consumption in the process of purification of 1,2-dichloroethane (EDC), which involves an azeotropic distillation column. In particular, the behavior of the column is considered unconventional for the following reasons: (1) the agent responsible for the azeotropic behavior is already in the feed and (2) the feed stream has a high concentration of EDC (more than 99%, w/w) and is far from the azeotropic point. The specific objectives of this work are the evaluation of the steady-state sensitivity of the column and the dynamic implications of its operation with energy reduction. The simulations in this study were conducted using the commercial simulator Aspen (TM) and the results show that the reduction in energy consumption in the reboiler of the column brings about the eventual formation of two liquid phases in some stages within the column. It is therefore important to implement the temperature profile in the upper section of the column. By applying the recommendations in this paper, the engineers in the real plant were able to reduce the heat duty to the reboiler of the distillation column by 21%. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.