Due to the close-boiling system of ethylbenzene (EB) and styrene monomer (SM), conventional distillation columns (CDiC) in industry exhibit high energy consumption and substantial steam usage, posing challenges to achieve optimal economic benefits.In this paper, the application of pressure swing thermal coupling technol. (PSTC) to the EB/SM separation process is presented, optimizing the CDiC, PSTC, and previously demonstrated self-heat recuperation technol. (SHRT) using particle swarm optimization (PSO) and artificial gorilla troops optimizer (GTO), followed by comparative anal.From an economic perspective, the longer the payback period (PBP) enhance the economic benefits of PSTC and SHRT.Specifically, with a 3-yr PBP, the total annual cost (TAC) for PSTC and SHRT decreased by 18.74 % and 19.08 %, resp., compared to the optimal CDiC.At a 5-yr PBP, the TAC reductions for PSTC and SHRT are 36.1% and 35.3%, resp.Addnl., prior studies have primarily focused on the economic and tech. aspects of the EB/SM separation process, neglecting comprehensive assessments of environmental factors and exergy.This paper addresses this gap by establishing a multi-criteria optimization and compromise solution evaluation model (AHP-CV-VIKOR) based on anal. hierarchical processes, coefficient of variation and ViseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje, facilitating a holistic evaluation of the entire EB/SM separation process.Ultimately, considering long-term global factors, the top-ranked EB/SM separation process identified through this comprehensive evaluation is the thermally coupled distillation technique enhanced by PSTC technol.