Batch distillation is an irreversible process and consumes many times the theoretical minimum energy requirement. The present work focuses on the development of an internally heat integrated batch distillation with a jacketed still (IHIBDJS) aiming to reduce the degree of irreversibility towards zero. The IHIBDJS scheme consists of a rectifying tower equipped with an overhead condenser and a still pot or reboiler that surrounds the tower concentrically. For improving the energy efficiency by the reduction of external energy input, the rectifier is operated at an elevated pressure so that a thermal driving force should exist between the rectifying tower and the concentric still. For this purpose, an isentropic compression system is mounted in the reboiled vapor line. Aiming to reduce further the degree of process irreversibility, we propose an additional thermal arrangement into the IHIBDJS configuration that couples the overhead vapor with the reboiler liquid, thereby reducing further the external heat consumption. It is investigated for a reactive batch distillation column that the effective use of internal heat sources would make the heat integrated column an independent scheme of external heat source. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.