NOVELTY - Producing ethanol involves hydrogenating feed stream in a reactor in presence of catalyst to form crude ethanol product; separating a portion of the product in at least two columns to produce ethanol and liquid recycle stream of ethyl acetate, where the stream is produced by combining acetic acid stream and liquid recycle stream; determining ethyl acetate concentration in the product; and adding water to the stream for maintaining ethyl acetate conversion of greater than 0%, when ethyl acetate concentration of the product is greater than ethyl acetate concentration of feed stream.    USE - For producing ethanol (claimed), which is used as fuel (for motor vehicles such as automobiles, boats and small piston engine aircraft), solvents (for toiletry and cosmetic preparations, detergents, disinfectants, coatings, inks, and pharmaceuticals), chemical feedstocks, pharmaceutical products, cleansers, sanitizers, hydrogen transport or consumption; as a processing solvent in manufacturing processes for medicinal products, food preparations, dyes, photochemicals and latex processing; as a chemical feedstock to make other chemicals such as vinegar, ethyl acrylate, ethyl acetate, ethylene, glycol ethers, ethylamines, aldehydes, and higher alcohols.    ADVANTAGE - The process achieves production rates of 25-250 tons of ethanol per hour. The crude vapor product, may be fed directly to the hydrogenation reactor without the need for condensing the acetic acid and light ends or removing water, saving overall processing costs.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Producing ethanol involves hydrogenating a feed stream in a reactor in the presence of a catalyst to form a crude ethanol product; separating at least a portion of the crude ethanol product in at least two columns to produce ethanol and a liquid recycle stream containing ethyl acetate, where the feed stream is produced by combining an acetic acid stream and a liquid recycle stream; determining ethyl acetate concentration in the crude ethanol product; and adding water (at least 0.01 wt.%) to the feed stream for maintaining an ethyl acetate conversion of greater than 0%, when the ethyl acetate concentration of the crude ethanol product is greater than the ethyl acetate concentration of the feed stream.