A PVA pervaporation membrane, which has preferential selectivity for water, was introduced. For the separation of ethanol-water mixtures above 90wt% of ethanol, the membrane exhibited selectivity above 50 and per-meability of 0-0.4l/hrㆍm². The membrane surface area required for the production of 360kg/hr absolute ethanol from 93wt% ethanol-water mixture by the pervaporation process using the membrane was estimated as 163m². In this case, the average ethanol concentration was calculated as 13.5wt%. The energy cost of pervaporation process was compared with that of azeotropic distillation process using benzene as an entrainer. As a result, it is confirmed that the ebergy cost of pervaporation process is merely 1/5 of that of azeotropic distillation process.