In this work a continuous trickle bed reactor was used to identify optimal operation conditions with two different palladium based catalysts, selected for their promising catalytic performances as measured in batch and semibatch reactors. The two catalysts use different supports: a commercial cross-linked polymeric matrix (i.e., K2621: a cross-linked copolymer of styrene divinylbenzene functionalized with sulfonic groups) and sulphated zirconia (SZ). The catalysts were characterized by TEM and XPS. The Pd-K2621 and the Pd-SZ catalysts differ in porosity and nanoparticles average size. The catalyst Pd-SZ has an average metal nanosize of about 6 nm, while that of Pd-K2621 is 15 nm, due to its properties and the synthesis method. The conditions studied allowed us to identify a maximum in the production rate and selectivity for both catalysts. The best results were achieved with the Pd-SZ sample, with a selectivity of 70%. The Pd-K2621 sample worst performances have been explained by its morphology. The results demonstrate that catalysts found promising in batch and semibatch operations to a comparable extent, such as Pd-K2621 and Pd-SZ, call for different optimization strategies in continuous reactors and may perform quite differently.