This paper addresses the performance characteristics of nickel-ceramic composite membranes fabricated with hydrothermal mass transfer coupled electroless plating baths. Deposition of nickel on a ceramic membrane support with an average pore size of 275 nm was considered to study the effect of autogenous pressure under hydrothermal conditions and sonication coupled hydrothermal conditions on the process as well as membrane characteristics. Bath conversion, plating efficiency, average film thickness and percent pore densification (PPD) were studied. Parametric investigations were carried out for wide range of initial nickel sulfate concentration (0.04-0.16 mol/L) in the solution at a higher loading ratio (393 cm(2)/L). An interesting observation from this study was that the autogenous pressure together with ultrasound provided the best performance characteristics of electroless plating. The optimal performance characteristics refer to 81.87% conversion, 84.19% plating efficiency, 99.92% PPD for a nickel composite membrane with film thickness of 37 mu m prepared using 0.16 mol/L of nickel solution metal concentration. The microfiltration study on oil-in-water emulsions inferred that the membrane fabricated with MO coupling and C-i = 0.04 mol/L gave a rejection of 90.13% and membrane permeability of 0.11 x 10(-10) m(3).m(-2).s(-1).Pa-1. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.