A 7,500 liter reactor/separator has been constructed for the production of ethanol from concentrated whey permeate. This unit is sited in Hopkinton IA, across the street from a whey generating cheese plant A two phase construction project consisting of (1) building and testing a reactor/separator with a solvent absorber in a single unified housing, and (2) building and testing an extractive distillation/product stripper for the recovery of anhydrous ethanol is under way. The design capacity of this unit is 250,000 gal/yr of anhydrous product. Design and construction details of the reactor/absorber separator are given, and design parameters for the extractive distillation system are described.