Process for operating a highly productive tubular reactor

A tubular reactor comprising:

• one or more reactor tubes including a tube inlet;
• a tube outlet located downstream of the tube inlet;
• an inner tube wall defining an interior of the one or more reactor tubes;
• an outer tube wall defining an exterior of the one or more reactor tubes;
• a volume of a catalyst provided in at least one section within the interior of the one or more reactor tubes;
• and
• a heat transfer structure provided within the interior of the one or more reactor tubes, the heat transfer structure being in conductive thermal contact with a portion of the catalyst and in at least partial conductive thermal contact with the inner tube wall throughout a surface area of the inner tube wall in the at least one section containing the catalyst;
• a reactor inlet in fluid communication with the one or more reactor tubes;
• and
• a reactor outlet located downstream of the reactor inlet and in fluid communication with the one or more reactor tubes,
• wherein the tubular reactor satisfies at least one of the following conditions:
• a ratio of an effective thermal conductivity of the heat transfer structure and the catalyst with the inner tube wall to a thermal conductivity of the catalyst (keff/kcat) is at least 50:1, or
• a total combined surf ace area of the heat transfer structure and inner tube wall containing the catalyst per volume of the catalyst (the “SA/V”) is about 500 m2/m3 to about 4000 m2/m3.