Hydrogenation of vinyl acetate using a continuous flow tubular reactor with catalytic static mixers

•Additively manufactured catalytic static mixers were used for continuous flow hydrogenation.•Manufacture of catalytic static mixers uses novel methods for catalyst deposition: metal cold spraying and electrodeposition.•New approach to heterogeneous catalysis for laboratory and small production scale using tubular reactor geometry with catalytic inserts.•Reaction optimization performed for the C–C double bond reduction of vinyl acetate using molecular hydrogen.•Two metal(0) catalyst layers were successfully used for the reduction of vinyl acetate: Ni(0) and Pd(0).