chemical_teo:
My first suggestion and comment to you is to learn how to communicate your thoughts effectively.
You state you are dealing with a process that converts methane to methanol using zeolites as a catalyst. Fine. That part communicates OK. However, you don’t identify the name of the process nor do you describe the reaction type or equipment used - such as drawing a simple process flow diagram. I don’t think we all know that methanol stays inside the pores of the catalyst. I thought it was the methane that was the smallest molecule and therefore had access to entering the pores. Please tell us the name of the process and where we can find details on it, if you can't describe it accurately.
Anyway, why are you using/proposing/ an adsorptive catalyst that “traps” your product methanol? That doesn’t seem to be very practical. Why not just employ a catalyst that allows free entrance and exit of both the reactants and products? You fail to explain this query.
Consequently, you infer you are trying to “strip” the catalyst of the entrapped methanol product. Is that what you mean to state? Does your process design allow for this? What I mean is that you are imposing a batch type of operation that is not steady state. You have to have your reactor bed isolated for regeneration and consequently your methanol production is 100% stopped during that period. Is that what you want?
You mention PSA adsorption as an example. You are totally mixed up with how an adsorption process works. PSA works only with a pressurized process. Is your process pressurized?
Please tell our members exactly - and in detail - what you are proposing, together with a flow diagram at least of how the process is supposed to operate. No process design engineer I know would propose a process where the catalyst would act as a containment trap for the resulting product. Catalysts become tainted, clogged, worn, and spent after their effective life ceases. They then are discarded or regenerated - but they are not allowed to get poisoned by the very product they help to produce. That just doesn’t make much sense.