Synthesis of high-surface area vanadium nitride catalysts using oxide foams was investigated. The foams used had considerable higher activity compared with the vanadium nitride synthesized directly from V₂O₅. The high-surface-area materials exhibited significantly improved catalytic activity in the non-oxidative dehydrogenation of propane. Results show that the high-surface-area vanadium nitride catalysts offer an alternative as catalysts in the non-oxidative dehydrogenation of lower alkanes.