Based on the advantages and disadvantages of the conventional rotating packed bed (RPB) and the rotating zigzag bed (RZB), a novel two-stage counter-current rotating packed bed (TSCC-RPB) was developed for the continuous distillation. The present research conducted continuous distillation experiments in the TSCC-RPB using the methanol-water binary system. Experimental results show that the packing plays a significant role in enhancing the separation efficiency. To achieve a high number of theoretical trays (N-T), the optimum rotational speed of the TSCC-RPB was about 700-800 r/min. Compared with the conventional RPB, the TSCC-RPB shows almost equivalent mass transfer efficiency and the same optimal rotational speed but can easily achieve the intermediate feed of continuous distillation. Compared with the RZB, the HETP of the TSCC-RPB, ranged from 31.16 to 47.21 mm, was smaller than that of the RZB ranged from 50.00 to 66.67 mm. The optimal rotational speed of the TSCC-RPB was also much lower than that of the RIB of 1000 r/min. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.