Patent ID: 7666282

Claim:
A process for providing ethanol comprising: a) flashing carbon dioxide from a beer stream ( 100 ) to provide a carbon dioxide gas stream ( 104 ) and a degassed beer feed ( 106 ); b) boiling the degassed beer feed ( 106 ) in a pre-boiler ( 110 ) to provide a vapor by-pass fraction ( 112 ) and a beer column feed stream ( 114 ); c) distilling the beer column feed stream ( 114 ) in a beer column to provide an overhead vapor fraction ( 118 ) and a spent beer fraction ( 122 ); d) distilling in a rectifier column ( 124 ), a combination comprising the vapor by-pass fraction ( 112 ) and the overhead vapor fraction ( 118 ) to provide an ethanol-rich rectifier overhead vapor stream ( 126 ) and a water-rich rectifier bottoms stream ( 128 ).