Structured packing for catalytic distillation

A distillation column reactor for concurrently carrying out reactions and separating the products from the reactants, comprising:

• a vertically disposed vessel;
• one or more catalytic distillation structures disposed in the vertically disposed vessel, comprising:
• a rigid framework having at least two grids;
• a plurality of horizontal fluid permeable tubes mounted to said grids to form a plurality of fluid pathways among the plurality of horizontal fluid permeable tubes, wherein each horizontal fluid permeable tubes have a profile of a six-sided polygon;
• and
• a plurality of vertically plates or wires connecting vertically aligned tubes of the plurality of horizontal fluid permeable tubes, wherein the plurality of vertically plates or wires connects from a corner of one vertically aligned tubes to a corner of an adjacent vertically aligned tube.