NOVELTY - Producing ethanol involves: hydrogenating acetic acid in a first reactor (103) to form a crude ethanol product (110) comprising ethanol, acetic acid, and water; separating a dilute acid stream (113) comprising acetic acid and water from the crude ethanol product; reacting the acetic acid from the dilute acid stream with methanol (119) in an esterification unit (118) to produce a methyl acetate stream (121) comprising methyl acetate; and producing acetic acid from the methyl acetate in a second reactor.    USE - For producing ethanol (claimed) used in applications including as fuels, solvents, chemical feedstocks, pharmaceutical products, cleansers, sanitizers, hydrogenation transport or consumption. In fuel applications, the ethanol is blended with gasoline for motor vehicles such as automobiles, boats and small piston engine aircrafts. In non-fuel applications, the ethanol composition is used as a solvent for toiletry and cosmetic preparations, detergents, disinfectants, coatings, inks, and pharmaceuticals. Also used as a processing solvent in manufacturing processes for medicinal products, food preparations, dyes, photochemicals and latex processing; and as a chemical feedstock to make other chemicals such as vinegar, ethyl acrylate, ethyl acetate, ethylene, glycol ethers, ethylamines, aldehydes, and higher alcohols, especially butanol.    ADVANTAGE - The process integrates ethanol production process with an acetic acid production process; and has improved operation efficiency. By removing a relatively large portion of the water and essentially all of the acetic acid from the crude ethanol product, the process reduces the energy required for additional acetic acid removal steps since less acetic acid will be contained in the ethanol-containing distillate of the first column, and less water is distilled overhead in the first column. The crude vapor product can be fed directly to the ethanol synthesis reaction zones without the need for condensing the acetic acid and light ends or removing water, and thus saves overall processing costs.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a schematic diagram of an acetic acid reduction system for an ethanol production process.    Hydrogenation system (100)    Reaction zone (101)    Separation zone (102)    Reactor (103)    Crude ethanol product stream (110)    Dilute acid stream (113)    Esterification unit (118)    Methanol stream (119)    Distillate stream comprising methyl acetate (121)