Removing the water from distilled product

There are a few ways to remove the water from the final distillate. Percentage wise: 94.68% alcohol, and rest is water. To use the distillate as a mix with gasoline or to use in a biodiesel making process, the water needs to be removed.

The commerical process uses Zeolite.

The small-scale, old school way to use a simple dehydrate is unslacked lime, Industrial alcohol is taken in a reactor and quick lime is added to that and the mixture is left over night for complete reaction. It is then distilled in fractionating column to get absolute alcohol. Water is retained by quick lime. This process is used for small-scale production of absolute alcohol by batch process.

The 'organic' method is to use heat-treated corn meal. The corn meal is reported to absorb both water and alcohol. Recovery of both products is possible via heating the meal to vaporize the water and alcohol.