Examples of distillation for zeotropic mixtures can be found in industry. Refining crude oil is an example of multi-component distillation in industry that has been used for more than 75 years. Crude oil is separated into five components with main and side columns in a sharp split configuration. In addition, ethylene is separated from methane and ethane for industrial purposes using multi-component distillation.
Separating aromatic substances requires extractive distillation, for example, distilling a zeotropic mixture of benzene, toluene, and p-xylene.