This is only a simple case, in industrial usage what goes on gets very complex. Both continuous and batch distillation are very important to industry. Continuous distillation is most often used with big volume products like jet fuel, benzene, plastic monomers. Processing sequence System type Heat flow Energy transfer is required to make separations work. Heat flow refers to the arrangement of the distillation column to its heat source and heat sink.
Fractionation refers to units that have both a reboiler and a condenser.
Something is attached to the bottom of the tower to put heat into the tower and something attached to the top of the tower to take heat out of the tower. This is what is normally called distillation Absorption is a unit that has no method at the top of the tower to take heat out. An external stream is supplied from outside the system to absorb material from the vapor. Stripping is a unit that has no method at the bottom of the tower to put heat in. An external stream is supplied from outside the system to strip material from the liquid.