During the whole of history, distillation has been the most extensive separation method. Regardless of its flexibility and simplicity, distillation technology is highly energy consuming. Modernistic distillation technologies based on intensification process has more ascendency than its conventional, not in terms of less energy consumption but it reduces the capital investment cost and improved efficiency. In order to meet the demands of modern society, a drastic development in the field of separation is required. Here this article first pointing towards the overview of latest trends in distillation technology with process intensification principles. In order to meet the control of modern chemical process, simultaneous design and control is proposed over the conventional design and control methods. Second, the article is pointing to various optimisation techniques used for simultaneous design and control of chemical processes. Significant development in the area of simultaneous design and control is categorised into two. 1) Controllability indicator based foundation 2) optimisation based foundation. In the simultaneous design and control of chemical process, first discussion started with the motivation and significance of simultaneous design and control based optimisation technique, then pointing towards the existing methodologies with theoretical algorithms and its merits and demerits. (c) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.