TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preferred Method: Further concentration of alcohol comprises feeding vapor to molecular sieve (125) or carrying out pervaporation. An acid is added at feed to distillation, to acid scrubber or to distillation column that is rectifying column (60) via reflux drum (130). The lignocellulosic feedstock is hydrolyzed by pretreating lignocellulosic feedstock and hydrolyzing cellulose component of feedstock with cellulase enzymes. Pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstock is conducted with acid to produce acid pretreated lignocellulosic feedstock. At least part of ammonium salts or combination of ammonium salts and ammonia in fermentable sugar solution is produced by adding ammonia or ammonium hydroxide to acid pretreated lignocellulosic feedstock to adjust the pH prior to addition of cellulase enzymes, or from ammonia or ammonium hydroxide used to produce alkali pretreated feedstock. Pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstock is conducted with ammonia or ammonium hydroxide to produce alkali pretreated lignocellulosic feedstock. Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic feedstock is carried out to hydrolyze both hemicellulose and cellulose present in lignocellulosic feedstock to their respective sugar monomers, and is conducted with acid or alkali. Hydrolysis is conducted with acid to produce acid hydrolysate, where at least part of ammonia is produced from ammonium salts produced by adding ammonia or ammonium hydroxide to acid hydrolysate; or is conducted with ammonia or ammonium hydroxide to produce alkali hydrolysate, where at least part of ammonia is produced from ammonium salts produced by adding acid to alkali hydrolysate. The concentration of ammonia in alcohol-enriched vapor is reduced by acid addition to less than or equal to 300, less than or equal to 200, less than or equal to 150, less than or equal to 100, less than or equal to 50 or less than or equal to 25 ppm.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The acid comprises sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid or phosphoric acid (135), preferably phosphoric acid. The acid used for pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstock is sulfuric acid. Preferred Composition: The fermentation broth comprises greater than or equal to 1.5, greater than or equal to 2 or greater than or equal to 3 g ammonium ions/kg fermentation broth.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Component: The alcohol is ethanol. The concentrated alcohol solution obtained in further concentrating step has pH of 6.5-9.0. Preferred Composition: The concentration of ethanol in alcohol-enriched vapor is greater than or equal to 30, greater than or equal to 50, greater than or equal to 80 or greater than or equal to 94 wt.% and less than the azeotropic concentration of ethanol-water mixture. The concentrated alcohol solution contains greater than or equal to 97 wt.% ethanol and less than 1 wt.% water. EXAMPLE - A fermentation broth was produced by reducing size of feedstock, receiving wheat straw in bales, mixing straw with water, feeding to standpipe where 93 wt.% sulfuric acid was added, pumping slurry through heated piping, flashing slurry, cooling slurry to 50 degrees C and adjusting pH to 5.0 using concentrated ammonium hydroxide; pumping pretreated slurry into hydrolysis tank, adding cellulase enzymes from Trichoderma reesei (35 mg protein/g cellulose), hydrolyzing and filtering; evaporating process stream, filtering, cooling to 30 degrees C, fermenting with yeast, and separating yeast cells from fermentation broth (beer). The beer containing 4.9 g/kg ammonia and ammonium was pumped to carbon dioxide de-gas column and to continuous Coffey still resulting in ethanol concentration of 40 wt.% alcohol. Vapor stream was sent to molecular sieve. At the discharge of molecular sieves, the purity of ethanol was greater than 99%. The production of ethanol from wheat straw was carried out with the addition of phosphoric acid (85 wt.%) at flow rate of 1.8-3.5 ml/minute to reflux drum of distillation unit. The pH was controlled to obtain acceptable range, i.e. 6.5-9.0. The zeolite resin did not foul, thus eliminating requirement for replacing it on monthly basis.