NOVELTY - Simulated moving bed (SMB) process for recovering ethanol from a biomass effluent stream from a fermentor comprises: passing the biomass effluent stream to a pretreatment zone and denaturating; passing a desorbent stream to the desorption zone; combining the rectification zone effluent with the treated biomass effluent stream; cooling; passing to a recovery zone; and indexing the adsorbent beds (101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108) sequentially in a direction, which is counter current to the desorbent flow direction.    USE - The process is useful for: recovering ethanol and associated oxygenate including 2,3-butanediol (preferred), isopropyl alcohol, butanol, n-butanol, tert-butanol, hydroxymethyl-tetrahydrofuran, tetrahydro-2-furfuryl alcohol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,2-butanediol, 1,3-butanediol, 1,4-butanediol, 1,2-pentanediol, 1,5-pentanediol, 1,8-octanediol, etohexadiol, p-menthane-3,8-diol, 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol, propanal, butanal, 2,5-furan-diacrboxyaldehyde, acetic acid, oxopropanoic acid, acrylic acid, levulinic acid, succinic acid, 2,5-furan-dicarboxylic acid, aspartic acid, glucaric acid, glutamic acid, itaconic acid, acetylacrylic acid, 4-O-methyl-glucuronic acid, gluconic acid or xylonic acid from a biomass effluent stream (all claimed); and removing water from dilute aqueous mixtures of organic compounds comprising ethanol in dilute concentration in water and produced by fermentation, biomass extraction, biocatalytic and enzymatic processes which are not economically recoverable by conventional distillation methods.    ADVANTAGE - The continuous process economically recovers particles and/or chemical compounds that are difficult or impossible to separate by any other conventional distillation methods with maximum selectivity and less energy consumption.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Simulated moving bed (SMB) process for recovering ethanol from a biomass effluent stream from a fermentor, where the biomass effluent stream comprises water, ethanol, at least one associated oxygenate, acetic acid and suspended solids, the SMB process has a desorption zone, a rectification zone, an adsorption zone, and a regeneration zone as SMB zones, each SMB zone has an upper portion and a bottom portion, the desorption zone, the rectification zone, and the adsorption zone and the regeneration zone comprise one or more serially-linked adsorbent beds and each adsorbent bed containing a stationary phase adsorbent selective for the adsorption of ethanol and the associated oxygenate, comprises either: (a) passing the biomass effluent stream to a pretreatment zone comprising a denaturation zone and a filtration zone, denaturating the biomass effluent stream in the denaturation zone to provide a denaturated biomass effluent stream and filtering the denaturated biomass effluent stream in the filtration zone through a filter having a filter size of less than or equal to 5 mu m and adjusting pH to 5-10 to provide a treated biomass effluent stream comprising water, at least one associated oxygenate, acetic acid and soluble biomass; (b) introducing the treated biomass effluent stream having a concentration of ethanol and the associated oxygenate of less than 15 wt.% in water to the upper portion of the adsorption zone and withdrawing a raffinate stream comprising water and a minor portion of ethanol from the bottom portion of the adsorption zone; (c) passing a desorbent stream in a desorbent flow direction to the upper portion of the desorption zone, withdrawing a desorbent zone effluent stream from the bottom of the desorption zone and recovering a portion of the desorption effluent stream as an extract stream comprising ethanol, the associated oxygenate, acetic acid and a minor portion of water; (d) passing a remaining portion of the desorption effluent stream to the upper portion of the rectification zone and withdrawing a rectification zone effluent; (e) combining the rectification zone effluent with the treated biomass effluent stream prior to introducing the treated biomass effluent stream to the upper portion of the adsorption zone; (f) isolating a regeneration zone and passing a hot regeneration stream at a regeneration temperature to the upper portion of the regeneration zone, withdrawing a spent regeneration stream from the bottom portion of the regeneration zone and cooling the spent regeneration stream to provide a cooled spent regeneration stream; (g) passing the extract stream to a recovery zone to provide an ethanol product stream and an associated oxygenate product stream; and (h) indexing the adsorbent beds (101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108) sequentially in a direction, which is counter current to the desorbent flow direction.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a flow chart of a simulated moving bed adsorption process for dewatering of ethanol.    Conduits (16, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42)    Line (30)    Adsorbent beds. (101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108)