Chemical reactor system and process

A method for producing bisphenol includes introducing a phenol and a ketone into a fixed, supported catalytic bed (14) reactor (10) system (50) in a downflow mode, reacting the phenol and the ketone to form a reaction mixture, and recovering the bisphenol isomer from the reaction mixture. The preferred bisphenol isomer is bisphenol A, or p,p'-bisphenol A, produced from the reaction of phenol and acetone. The reactor (10) for producing the bisphenol A from the reaction of phenol and acetone includes an ion exchange resin catalyst disposed in a bed (14) and packing randomly distributed throughout the ion exchange resin catalyst to improve heat transfer efficiency and reduce compression of the catalyst bed.