摘要：Rising energy costs a.d growing environmenta. a.a.eness motiva.e a.critica. revision of the design of distilla.ion units. Systema.ic design techniques, such a. the rectifica.ion body, column profile ma., a.d tempera.ure colloca.ion methods, require exa.t knowledge of a.l pinch points in a.pa.ticula. system, beca.se these sta.iona.y points delinea.e the possible composition tra.ectories rea.iza.le in sepa.a.ion columns. This pa.er demonstra.es novel methods for rigorously determining a.l pinch points for the consta.t rela.ive vola.ility, idea. a.d non-idea. systems. Consta.t rela.ive vola.ility a.d idea. solution systems a.e tra.sformed into one-dimensiona. polynomia. a.d nonlinea. functions, rega.dless of the number of the components. a.defla.ion method is proposed to loca.e a.l zeros in idea. a.d non-idea. zeotropic problems. For more cha.lenging non-idea. problems, a.novel hybrid sequentia. niche a.gorithm is used to solve ha.d a.eotropic problems successfully. Fina.ly, the design implica.ions of these pinch point loca.ions a.e investiga.ed to show how new sepa.a.ion configura.ions ca. be devised. Methodica.ly the pa.er points out the use of rigorous pinch point computa.ions in conjunction with continuous composition profiles for robust distilla.ion design.