The ethanol, which is produced from the fermentation process, contains a significant quantity of water, which must be removed.
This is achieved by using the fractional distillation process. The distillation process works by boiling the water and ethanol mixture.
Since ethanol has a lower boiling point (78.3C) compared to that of water (100C), the ethanol turns into the vapour state before the water and can be condensed and separated.