In the context of the production of n-butyl acetate, acetic acid or ethyl acetate from methyl acetate, a pervaporation module was employed in order to retrofit the extractive distillation unit used to recover methyl acetate from a methanol/methyl acetate industrial waste stream. The PolyAl TypM1 (R) membrane (from PolyAn (TM)) was first tested using a wide feed concentration range (11-90 mol% methanol) and three temperatures (30, 36, 44 degrees C). Then, it was compared with other commercial membranes reported in literature (at 40-45 degrees C) at the methanol/methyl acetate azeotropic composition, resulting in a medium/low separation factor and with the highest flux. This ensured the simulation of a very challenging condition for the retrofitting from an energetic point of view (i.e., for moderate or low separation factor membranes: the higher the flux, the higher the process energy requirement). The retrofitting permits to avoid the use of a solvent during azeotropic separation. Moreover, during comparison of the retrofitted hybrid pervaporation-distillation unit with the source industrial extractive distillation unit, an overall energy saving up to similar to 38% was demonstrated (similar to 23% when only the energy consumed by the heaters is taken into account). In addition, major hydraulic modifications could be avoided employing structured packing and membranes of higher separation factors. (c) 2016 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.