This review summarizes the resent research on fiber based structured materials for catalytic application. This material class comprises a wide range of differently structured supports made from ceramic, metal or glass. Within the last decades due to their flexibility fiber based catalysts were applied to several reactions ranging from pollutant control to fuel processing and showed significant advantages in mass and heat transfer, pressure drop and productivity. The review focusses on mass transfer and pressure drop characteristics and the published correlations for them. A classification in comparison to established support structures is done not only showing superior properties but also the demand for further studies in hydrodynamics and transfer process. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.