TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: The aqueous feedstock, prior to being introduced into the EDC, is initially preheated by the vaporous overhead stream and subsequently preheated by the lean high-boiling water selective solvent stream that is recycled to the upper portion of the EDC. The step (b) involves introducing a high-boiling water selective, salt-free solvent through an entry point at the upper portion of the EDC, where the temperature of the high-boiling water selective solvent is 10-20 degrees C lower than that of the EDC at the entry point in order to generate internal reflux. The lean high-boiling water selective solvent which is removed from a bottom of the SRC has less than 0.5 wt.% water. The step (a) involves forming a liquid bottoms stream comprising water, ethanol, and high-boiling water selective solvent and in step (d) the SRC produces an overhead stream comprising water and ethanol that is condensed to form a condensate that is fed into a distillation column to yield a liquid bottoms stream consisting of water and an overhead stream comprising ethanol and water which is recycled to the EDC; or the step (a) involves producing a vaporous overhead stream comprising water and ethanol and the process further involves: feeding at least a portion of the vaporous overhead stream from the EDC into a distillation column to produce a second liquid bottoms stream consisting of water and a second overhead stream comprising ethanol and water; and recycling the second overhead stream into the EDC. Preferred Components: The aqueous feedstock comprises ethanol (85-95, preferably 90-92) wt.%. The high-boiling water selective, salt-free solvent is selected from glycerin, tetraethylene glycol, ethylene glycol, and/or diethylene glycol (preferably glycerin). The EDC has a bottoms temperature of 160-200 degrees C. The SRC has a bottoms temperature of 160-200 degrees C. The SRC has an operating pressure of 50 to 500 mmHg (absolute). The SRC has an operating pressure of 150 to 300 mmHg (absolute). The amount of ethanol that is in the liquid bottoms stream of the EDC is 20 wt.% or not greater than 5 wt.% of the amount of ethanol that is in the aqueous feedstock. The high-boiling ethanol selective, salt-free solvent is selected from 2-phenyl-phenol, cumyl phenol, diisopropyl phenol, cyclohexyl cyclohexanone, cyclohexyl cyclohexanol, methyl benzoate, dipropylene glycol dibenzoate, and/or trimellitic anhydride. EXAMPLE - Aqueous feed containing ethanol (90.82 wt.%) and water (9.18 wt.%) was pre-heated to 70-80 degrees C and fed into the middle portion of the extractive distillation column (EDC). A lean solvent containing glycerin (99.50 wt.%) and water (0.50 wt.%) was fed to the chimney tray at the top of the column after pre-heating. The rates of ethanol feed and glycerin solvent feed were 1.94 and 7.39 kg/hour, respectively (the overall solvent-to-feed (S/F) weight ratio was 3.8). The EDC kettle temperature was maintained at 149 degrees C to generate a vapor stream in the EDC. The EDC column temperature profile was within 80-90 degrees C even though the boiling point of glycerin was 290 degrees C. Even without liquid reflux at the top of the EDC, anhydrous ethanol containing ethanol (99.52 wt.%), water (0.48 wt.%), and no measurable levels of glycerin was produced from the EDC overhead, at a rate of 1.72 kg/hour. Rich solvent containing glycerin (96.41 wt.%), ethanol (1.12 wt.%), and water (2.37 wt.%) was withdrawn from the EDC bottom at a rate of 7.79 kg/hour. Based on experimental data, ethanol recovery was determined to be 96.2 wt.%. Thus the method produced anhydrous ethanol with very high purity (99.5 wt.%) and no solvent contamination was observed.