By operating the Mother Liquor Column at an elevated 35 pressure, the overhead components or overheads can be used as a heat source fbr other recovery columns in the polyvinyl alcohol plant. Operating at about 55 psig allows fbr over 50% of the energy used in this tower to be recovered. Other streams may additionally be sent to the mother liquor 40 column fbr separation. For example, a stream containing water and methanol from the extractive distillation of vinyl acetate and methanol, which is often used in the PVOH process can also be sent to the mother liquor column fbr separation.