Dehydration and purification of isopropyl alcohol to an ultradry and ultrapure level

摘要

A method for the on-site reprocessing of isopropyl alcohol used in semiconductor manufacturing, to generate an ultradry and ultrapure isopropyl alcohol. This ultradry and ultrapure isopropyl alcohol is produced through a pervaporation step, followed by double distillation. In the first distillation step, an autonomous azeotropic self-stripping distillation column is used to produce an ultradry and partially purified isopropyl alcohol. In the next step, the isopropyl alcohol is distilled in an overhead product distillation column, to produce an ultrapure and ultradry isopropyl alcohol. Alternatively, if the feed isopropyl alcohol contains less than 2000 ppm water, the pervaporation step may be omitted. The resulting isopropyl alcohol has between a high of 100 parts per million (ppm) and a low of 0.1 ppm of water in the isopropyl alcohol. It also has zero particles per milliliter of a size larger than 2.0 microns, zero to 2 particles per milliliter of a size of 0.5 micron to 2.0 microns, zero to 30 particles per milliliter of a size between 0.1 microns and 0.5 microns, an unspecified number of particles per milliliter below 0.1 microns, 1 part per trillion (ppt) to 1 part per billion (ppb) of any specific trace impurity such as metals, anions, and cations, and 10 ppt to 10 ppm of any other specific trace organic substances.