Patent ID: 7750052

Claim:
A process for preparing an aqueous-alcoholic solution, comprising the steps of: a) separate protonation of purified potable water and rectified ethyl alcohol to separately form protonated water and protonated ethyl alcohol, wherein said protonation of water is effected with the help of a first proton donor stronger than water and the protonation of ethyl alcohol is effected with the help of a second proton donor stronger than ethyl alcohol; b) separate filtration of the protonated water and the protonated ethyl alcohol from step (a) to form separate filtered products consisting of filtered, protonated water and filtered, protonated ethyl alcohol; and c) forming the aqueous-alcoholic solution from the filtered products from step (b) by blending the filtered, protonated ethyl alcohol and the filtered, protonated water; wherein the separate protonation in step (a) is effected with respective concentrations of the first and second proton donors effective to inhibit proton transfer from the rectified ethyl alcohol to the purified potable water after the blending and thereby to reduce an amount of impurities in the aqueous-alcoholic solution formed from the filtered, protonated ethyl alcohol and the filtered, protonated water as compared with an aqueous-alcoholic solution formed from ethyl alcohol and water that has not been subjected to the separate protonation and filtration in steps (a) and (b).