In industrial practice, the operation of chemical units makes to a considerable extent use of basic control elements like PID controllers and sequence control. However, the need for highly flexible and reliable operation of chemical units makes life-cycle engineering of the basic control layer increasingly challenging. This article presents a dynamic simulation of a vapour recompression distillation, which reflects practically relevant conditions, to be used as a test case for studying approaches to design, implement, commission, maintain and document basic control for chemical plants. A simulation of a startup and the accuracy with respect to material and energy conservation are shown. The simulation is available for free download via the homepage of the Control Systems Group at TU Berlin. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.