真空蒸馏是一种使待分离液体上方压强小于其蒸汽压的蒸馏方法。这种方法适用于蒸汽压大于环境压力的液体。由于待分离液体沸点降低，真空蒸馏不一定需要加热。

在实验室中，真空蒸馏被用于沸点较高或在温度接近于沸点时容易发生反应的液体。对于温度敏感的物质如β-胡萝卜素等需要通过真空蒸馏进行分离，这样可以防止由于温度变化造成的化学反应。真空蒸馏比普通蒸馏有更少的残留物。

Continuous distillation, a form of distillation, is an ongoing separation in which a mixture is continuously (without interruption) fed into the process and separated fractions are removed continuously as output streams. Distillation is the separation or partial separation of a liquid feed mixture into components or fractions by selective boiling (or evaporation) and condensation. The process produces at least two output fractions. These fractions include at least one volatile distillate fraction, which has boiled and been separately captured as a vapor condensed to a liquid, and practically always a bottoms (or residuum) fraction, which is the least volatile residue that has not been separately captured as a condensed vapor.