In this study, an enthalpy-concentration method was applied in order to model a steady state continuous benzene-toluene mixture distillation column. For a distillation tower such as the benzenetoluene splitter, there are relatively few degrees of freedom that can be manipulated in order to minimize the total annualized cost. The reflux ratio can influence the steady-state operating point and therefore influence the total annualized cost. The trade-offs between reflux ratios and total annualized cost were discussed. The Cuckoo optimization algorithm was applied to obtain a correlation for the optimum value of the reflux ratio as a power function of the economic parameters of energy price and capital cost. The results show that, at low energy price or high capital cost, the optimum reflux factor is high. For a distillation tower such as the benzenetoluene splitter, there are relatively few degrees of freedom that can be manipulated in order to minimize the total annualized cost. The reflux ratio can influence the steady-state operating point and therefore influence the total annualized cost. The trade-offs between reflux ratios and total annualized cost were discussed. The Cuckoo optimization algorithm was applied to obtain a correlation for the optimum value of the reflux ratio as a power function of the economic parameters of energy price and capital cost. The results show that, at low energy price or high capital cost, the optimum reflux factor is high.