Continuous stainless steel plants for ethanol dehydration by a physical / chemical process called adsorption.
In this process water molecules are trapped on the surface of adsorbing solid, called molecular sieve, removing water from the mixture to be dehydrated.
During the adsorption process molecular sieves tend to become saturated, that means, in order to restore their dehydration capabilities, after the absorption phase a regenerative one must be carried out.