NOVELTY - Producing (M1) motor fuel-grade ethanol involves introducing mixture of ethanol and water into a vacuum dehydration retort provided with a temperature gradient controlling heat-removal unit; maintaining proper vapor-liquid equilibrium within the retort; and distilling and dehydrating the mixture in the retort while maintaining the temperature and pressure parameters to produce the motor fuel-grade ethanol.    USE - For producing motor fuel-grade ethanol (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The process produces 99.19-100 wt.% motor fuel-grade ethanol, at very low pressures and at predictable associated minimum boiling point temperatures compare to commercially known process for producing fuel-grade ethanol, thus thus useful in commercial and industrial scale. The vacuum dehydration unit and the process eliminate the use of plates and packing material and achieve particularly good vapor-liquid contact resulting in a vapor-liquid equilibrium throughout the retort to produce industrial flow rates of fuel-grade to anhydrous ethanol. The process requires less capital expense, less operating energy and is easier and safer to operate and maintain than conventional industrial process equipment.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Producing (M1) a motor fuel-grade ethanol, having an ethanol concentration of 99.19-100 wt.% of ethanol, involves introducing a mixture of ethanol (95 vol.%) and water (5 vol.%) into a vacuum dehydration retort provided with a temperature gradient controlling heat-removal unit for maintaining a proper thermodynamic balance within the retort; maintaining the proper vapor-liquid equilibrium within the retort, given the desired weight % ethanol in the final fuel-grade ethanol produced, by directly computing the controlling parameters of minimum boiling-point temperature, and pressure in the retort according to the mathematical expression as given in the specification; and distilling and dehydrating the mixture in the vacuum dehydration retort while maintaining the temperature and pressure parameters in the equation in the indicated relationships to produce the motor fuel-grade ethanol. INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for the following:    (1) an apparatus for producing a premium quality motor fuel-grade ethanol having a concentration of 99.19-100 wt.% of ethanol, comprising a stripping and rectifying unit for distilling a beer feed introduced from a fermentation stage to produce a mixture of ethanol (95 vol.%) and water (5 vol.%); and a vacuum dehydration retort for practicing the process, for further concentrating the mixture to the premium quality fuel-grade ethanol, the retort comprising a heat-removal unit for producing and maintaining the appropriate thermodynamic balance required within the dehydration retort to produce the fuel-grade ethanol; and    (2) an electricity cogeneration process (M2) including converting the starch of corn kernels from ears of corn into motor fuel-grade ethanol utilizing only energy derived from the cobs and shucks of the ears of corn, involving separating the corn kernels of the ears from the associated cobs and shucks to produce a feedstock; fermenting the feedstock into beer feed containing ethanol (10 vol.%); distilling the beer feed to produce a mixture of ethanol (95 vol.%) and water (5 vol.%); dehydrating the mixture by distilling the mixture in a vacuum retort, under controlled operating parameters of pressure and temperature, where a heat-removal unit is provided in combination with the vacuum retort which continuously removes predetermined and controlled amounts of heat from the retort, thus maintaining vapor/liquid equilibrium and essential temperature differentials while allowing predetermined and controlled amounts of heat to be added as necessary to the liquid reflux within the base of the vacuum retort to insure vapor boil-up rates required to provide the desired industrial product flow rates of fuel-grade ethanol; where all of the energy for both the distilling and dehydrating steps is provided solely by combustion of the cobs and shucks of the associated corn kernels used as the feedstock processed into the ethanol, and the electricity is generated by combustion of the cobs and shucks of the associated corn kernels used as the feedstock processed into the ethanol.