Esterification of raw lactic acid from fermentation broth and then hydrolysis of lactate ester in reactive distillation column is an effective process for purification of lactic acid. Reactive distillation for hydrolysis of methyl lactate is studied. First, the thermodynamic properties and reaction kinetics are analyzed; then the reactive distillation column is designed based on the objective function total annual cost. The effects of tray number of rectifying section, tray number of reactive section, and feed location on the total annual cost are investigated. And a dual-temperature control structure is proposed for the optimal reactive distillation column, and the results show that it works quite well for this hydrolysis system. (C) 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.