Distillation/dehydration represents the largest fraction of the energy used in the production of ethanol. The Siftek (TM) technology introduced in this paper carries the potential of reducing energy consumption of distillation/dehydration by up to 50% through the single pass removal of water from the water/ethanol stream at the beer column outlet, using a novel membrane process. Siftek (TM) is a polymeric membrane that can be used to dry ethanol in the vapor phase. The membrane preferentially permeates water over ethanol in a continuous process. Energy reductions are obtained because this membrane is well suited to remove large quantities of water without phase change. The Siftek (TM) technology has been piloted since August 2006 in a Greenfield Ethanol plant in Tiverton, Ontario, Canada. The Tiverton unit has a capacity of I m(3)/d and has been producing fuel ethanol from a feed containing between 75 and 90wt.% ethanol in a single stage system. Based on the successful operation of the pilot, it was decided to scale-up the technology. A two-stage membrane system with a capacity of 20 m(3)/d was built for the Greenfield Ethanol plant in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. The unit is equipped with full-scale commercial membrane modules and is capable of treating a beer-column feed containing 60-70wt.% ethanol, producing >99wt.% fuel-grade ethanol. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.