Abstract: Two energy-saving processes of methanol distillation were proposed. In the improved three-column process with double-effect distillation, the vapor from higher-pressure column was not only the heat source of the lower-pressure column, but also the heat source of pretreatment column. A new higher-pressure column was added in the four-column process with double-effect distillation, and its vapor was used to heat up the reboiler of pretreatment column. The distillate of the new higher-pressure column is methanol product and the bottom stream is waste water. A steady-state simulation was carried out. The result showed that the difference of temperature at two sides of heat exchangers was appropriate so the heat exchangers could work normally. A comparison between two energy-saving processes and the traditional three-column processes indicated that the improved three-column process reduced the heat consumption by 16.67% of traditional three-column process and the four-column process reduced the heat consumption by 16.17% of traditional three-column process.