Abstract: Disclosed is a purification process for removing lipophilic impurities coined in an aqueous crude ethanol solution, in particular, for efficiently removing impurities consisting of C.sub.3 -C.sub.4 alcohols. The process involves (a) a first extraction step wherein the aqueous crude ethanol solution is extracted with an extractant for removing the lipophilic impurities, except for the C.sub.3 -C.sub.4 alcohols, contained in the aqueous crude ethanol solution by subjecting the aqueous crude ethanol solution to extraction with the extractant in a pressurized state containing carbon dioxide in a liquidized state or carbon dioxide gas in a supercritical state; (b) a concentration-distillation step wherein a raffinate obtained in the first extraction step is fed to a distilling column to thereby obtain a highly concentrated aqueous ethanol solution from a top of the distilling column and withdraw fraction containing C.sub.3 -C.sub.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for the separation of impurities from a crude ethanol aqueous solution, comprising of; (i) extracting lipophilic impurities within the crude ethanol aqueous solution into an extracting solvent phase by treating the crude ethanol aqueous solution with an extracting solvent comprising carbon dioxide in a liquid state or carbon dioxide in a super-critical state under conditions wherein a ratio of the weight of the extracting solvent to the weight of the crude ethanol aqueous solution is 2 or higher; and (ii) recovering ethanol entrained with the extracting solvent or ethanol and methanol entrained with the extracting solvent into an aqueous phase by contacting the extracting solvent phase resulting after extracting the impurities to with water in a countercurrent manner under pressures in a ratio of the weight of water to the weight of the extracting solvent of 0.3 or lower.