In this work, a conventional reactive distillation process (CRD) is designed for isopropanol synthesis. Furthermore, five processes based on self-heat recuperation technology (SHRT) are designed to improve energy-saving performance of CRD. And then heat exchanger network is introduced into two processes based on SHRT to reduce more energy consumption. Finally, a reactive dividing-wall column process (RDWC) is developed to compare with other processes in energy-saving performance. The result of comparison indicates that total annual cost (TAC), total energy consumption (TEC) and CO2 emissions of processes based on SHRT and RDWC are decreased effectively compared with CRD. The performance of process based on SHRT is better than that of RDWC. The RD-VR-HEN is the optimal process. Compared with CRD, RD-VR-HEN saves 34.72% of TAC, 63.16% of TEC and 55.04% of CO2 emissions. Compared with RDWC, TAC, TEC and CO2 emissions of RD-VR-HEN decreases by 13.80%, 54.05% and 44.62%, respectively. (C) 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.