Process for the recovery of ethanol from crude ethyl acetate

Abstract

A process for the recovery of substantially dry ethanol from a feedstock comprising ethyl acetate, ethanol and water, said process comprising: (a) passing said feedstock to a first separation column which includes a first separation column reboiler, and is maintained under distillation conditions to form an intermediate bottom stream comprising ethanol and water and having a higher ethanol concentration than the ethanol concentration in said feedstock; (b) passing said intermediate bottom stream to an azeotrope column maintained under distillation conditions to form an azeotrope column bottom stream, and an azeotrope column overhead stream which comprises ethanol and water; (c) feeding an ethanol make-up stream into said azeotrope column; (d) passing said azeotrope column overhead stream through a water removal section for separating water from ethanol to form a substantially dry ethanol stream; (e) using said substantially dry ethanol stream to provide heat in said first separation column reboiler.