This work compares two multifunctional reactors, reactive distillation and chromatographic reactors, for the production of C1-C4 carboxylic esters. Both the processes have been simulated using appropriate simulators; and near optimal operating conditions are found based on the conceptual design and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA II) methodologies. The energy consumptions per kg of esters produced in both the processes are compared, and it has been found that for ethyl alcohol, reactive chromatography performs at par with reactive distillation. In the other cases (methanol, n-propanol and n-butanol), the reactive distillation is much more attractive. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.