Patent ID: 8026399

Claim:
A process for recovering ethanol from a feed mixture comprising: (a) introducing the feed mixture into a fractional condensation apparatus; (b) fractionally condensing the feed mixture in the fractional condensation apparatus to form a first condensed fluid and a first vapor, the feed mixture having a temperature between about 30° C. and about 60° C. before fractional condensing; (c) condensing the first vapor in a top condenser to form a second condensed fluid and a second vapor, the top condenser having a temperature between about 6° C. and about 11° C.; and (d) condensing the second vapor in a product condenser to form a cold product stream, the product condenser having a temperature that is below the temperature of the top condenser; wherein the feed mixture contains between about 1 mol % and about 5 mol % of ethanol, at least about 5 mol % water, and at least about 90 mol % gases selected independently from the group consisting of N 2 , O 2 and CO 2 , or mixtures thereof; whereby a concentration of ethanol in the cold product stream of at least about 80 wt % and a recovery of at least about 60 wt % is obtained.