NOVELTY - An extractive distillation (ED) process involves introducing aqueous feedstock comprising ethanol and water into middle portion of extractive distillation column (EDC) (201); introducing high-boiling water selective solvent into upper portion of EDC to contact aqueous feedstock under extractive distillation conditions; withdrawing at least portion of vaporous overhead from EDC as purified ethanol product; feeding at least portion of liquid bottoms stream (1) of EDC into solvent recovery column (SRC) (202); and recycling at least portion of lean high-boiling water selective solvent stream.    USE - An ED process for dehydrating aqueous feedstock containing ethanol and water (claimed) useful for recovering anhydrous ethanol, i.e. for gasoline blending, from fermentation broth.    ADVANTAGE - The process provides an improved, simple, and energy efficient extractive distillation for recovering anhydrous ethanol at greater than 99.5 wt.%.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - ED process involves introducing aqueous feedstock comprising ethanol and water into middle portion of EDC (201); introducing high-boiling water selective solvent into upper portion of EDC to contact aqueous feedstock under extractive distillation conditions to produce liquid bottoms stream that comprises water and high-boiling water selective solvent and to produce vaporous overhead stream (3) that comprises greater than 99.5 wt.% ethanol, where EDC is operated with liquid reflux-to-distillate ratio of less than 0.5; withdrawing at least a portion of vaporous overhead from EDC as purified ethanol product; feeding at least portion of liquid bottoms stream (1) of EDC into SRC (202) to remove water and yield lean high-boiling water selective solvent stream; and recycling at least portion of lean high-boiling water selective solvent stream into upper portion of EDC. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for a process of dehydrating aqueous feed-stock containing ethanol and water by:    (A) distilling aqueous feedstock in a pre-distillation column to produce first vaporous overhead stream, vaporous side-cut stream, and first liquid bottoms stream;    (B) partially condensing first vaporous overhead stream in first condenser (204) to yield condensate phase and vapor phase;    (C) recycling condensate phase from first condenser into pre-distillation column as reflux;    (D) introducing vaporous side-cut stream into a middle portion of EDC;    (E) introducing bottoms stream from SRC which contains high-boiling water selective solvent into upper portion of EDC to contact vaporous side-cut stream under extractive distillation conditions to produce second vaporous overhead stream;    (F) introducing at least portion of second liquid bottoms stream from EDC into SRC to remove water and ethanol from high-boiling water selective solvent;    (G) recycling at least portion of bottoms stream of SRC that comprises high-boiling water selective solvent into upper portion of EDC;    (H) recycling first portion of overhead condensate from SRC as liquid reflux and second portion into predistillation column; and    (I) withdrawing bottom stream from pre-distillation column that consists of water.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The drawing is a schematic view of low-energy extractive distillation process.    Liquid bottoms stream (1)    Vaporous overhead stream (3)    EDC (201)    SRC (202)    Condenser (204)