Ceramic hollow fibre membrane contactors are employed for the distillation of benzene and toluene at 93-97 degrees C to demonstrate their chemical and thermal stability in the condition, which polymeric membranes cannot tolerate. The results show that the membrane contactors can be operated over the flooding limit of conventional packed columns because the vapour and liquid phases are separated from each other. The HTU value of the membrane contactor is as low as 9 cm, indicating excellent separation efficiency, which is resulted from its large surface area per volume. It is promising that the membrane contactors can achieve high separation efficiency along with high column capacity. The overall mass transfer coefficients (KG) were in a range of 0.11-0.50 cm/s and are found to be dependent on the fluid velocity. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.