TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INSTRUMENTATION AND TESTING - Preferred Components: The liquid-liquid extraction system comprises at least one component comprising a mixer-settler, a spray column, a packed column, a perforated plate column, a baffled column, an agitated column, a centrifugal contactor or a membrane contactor, which comprises hollow fibers.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: The method further comprises: removing any residual water from the volatilized product to form a fuel-grade alcohol; and recycling the raffinate phase for reuse in a fermentation process, where the removing step comprises treatment of the volatilized product with zeolite molecular sieves. The temperature of the dilute aqueous alcohol feed stream is 25-100 degrees C. The concentration of the dilute aqueous alcohol feed stream is 0.5-20 wt.%. The method is performed continuously or batch-wise. The extraction in the liquid-liquid extraction system is performed at 25-100 degrees C. The ratio of the solvent to the feed stream substantially devoid of solids is 0.1-10. The pressure in the recovery system is 0.01-20 psia and the frequency of the microwave radiation is 2.45 GHz. Preferred Components: The feed stream substantially devoid of solids is fed into the interior (lumen) of each of the hollow fibers and the solvent is fed to the exterior (shell) of each of the hollow fibers. The solvent is linear alkanes, linear alkenes, branched alkanes, branched alkenes, or aromatic hydrocarbons. The solvent comprises non-polar primary component and a polar modifier, where the non-polar primary component is substantially microwave transparent, and the polar modifier improves extraction of the alcohol and more efficiently absorbs microwave radiation than the non-polar primary component, which is linear alkanes, linear alkenes, branched alkanes, branched alkenes, or aromatic hydrocarbons, preferably poly(dimethylsiloxane). The polar modifier is long chain alcohol, a long chain fatty acid, an ester of a long chain fatty acid, or ether. The polar modifier comprises naturally-occurring triglyceride, which is soybean oil, corn oil, olive oil or castor oil. The polar modifier comprises greater than 1 wt.% of the solvent. EXAMPLE - Dow Corning DC200.20 (RTM: Silicone oil) (9.54 g) was added to a polyethylene beaker (50 ml). Anhydrous ethanol (0.87 g) was added to the silicone oil and the mixture was stirred to homogenize. The beaker was then placed into a conventional home microwave oven and heated for 1 minute at full power. At this point, the beaker was removed, weighed quickly and returned to the microwave oven. The process was repeated until a total of 5 minutes of heating had been conducted. The beaker content weight (silicone oil plus ethanol) was a function of microwave heating time. The initial weight of the silicone oil was indicated that substantially only ethanol was evaporated during the heating process. During the microwave irradiation, the beaker remained cool, although temperature was not actually measured. The microwave energy was selectively discriminate between ethanol and silicone oil during microwave heating. The microwave heating was capable of removing ethanol from silicone oil without heating the entire solvent mass, thus conserving energy.