A novel structured vanadium catalyst (SVC) for the catalytic oxidation Of SO2 was designed and synthesized based on a monolith substrate with regular and interconnecting channels. The new catalyst was synthesized by a molding compressing method. Specifically, plastic templates were compressed with a slurry containing active components, and then the templates were removed by thermal treatment, resulting in a monolithic structure with uniquely designed channels. It was discovered that low moisture capacity and high fluidity of the slurry help improve the mechanical strength of SVC. Pre-processing the slurry under optimized conditions can greatly improve the fluidity of the slurry. Both plastic and liquid limits of the slurry could be reduced by about 50% through pre-processing. The mechanical strength of the SVC prepared reached 1.1 MPa. The activity of SVC is comparable to the traditional vanadium catalyst, but its pressure-drop is only 30% of that of a commercial cylindrical catalyst. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.