A practical methodology for the design and optimization of extractive distillation is proposed in this work. The extractive distillation is generally applied to the separation of close-boiling mixtures, which by conventional distillation is difficult to separate. The design and optimization of extractive distillation is more complex than that of the conventional distillation when considering the selection of suitable solvent to enhance the separation. Currently, the solvent selection can be effectively handled by the assistance of the computer-aided molecular design (CAMD) approach. The selection result may however be inconclusive due to the lack of accurate or missing parameters in the property model. In this work, the experimental verification and the property parameter determination were proved to be necessary as an additional step to achieve a successful and reliable design. The overall design methodology was illustrated through an industrial separation of C8-Aromatics mixture. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.