Abstract: A system and method for producing substantially anhydrous ethanol, methanol or other volatile chemicals includes: (a) a first distillation stripping column or column set with overhead vapors compressed using mechanical vapor recompression to strip off a weak ethanol overheads; (b) a second distillation rectifying column having a higher operating temperature than the stripping column; (c) a dehydration means in fluid communication with the rectifying column; (d) reboiler for the stripping column which partially condenses the vapor from the mechanical vapor recompression, (e) a trim condenser which completes the condensing of the vapor/liquid mix of the reboiler, (f) a heat recovery circuit which condenses the rectifying column overheads and molecular sieve dry ethanol condenser and (g) a heat exchange to transfer the recovered heat of (f) to the first distillation stripping column reboiler feed.

Abstract: The present invention includes a process for the dehydration of ethanol by adsorption of water at elevated pressure and for the regeneration (purging) of adsorbent at a lower pressure than the pressure used for the adsorption of water where the ratio of the duration of the regeneration (purge) step to the duration of the water adsorption step is higher than 0.1 and the temperature of adsorption is greater than 260 degree Fahrenheit.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system for producing ethanol from an organic source and that operates to purify and dry ethanol from a beer source. The system for producing substantially anhydrous ethanol comprises: (a) a first distillation stripping column; (b) a second distillation rectifying column having a higher operating temperature than said stripping column; (c) a molecular sieve dehydration means in fluid communication with said rectifying column. Heat from the overhead of the second distillation rectifying column and the molecular sieve dehydration are used to heat the first distillation stripping column.