This article continues a series of annual bibliographic updates of the published literature (since 1980) on distillation and other equilibriumstaged separation processes. This article provides a useful and quick reference source to the 2002 journal literature (from the 50 most important chemical engineering journals) for researchers in this area. [1 -12] The following topics are included: † Distillation theory and design methods † Distillation control and applications † Column design data † Absorption reactions and absorber design 709