Membrane technology is an emerging scientific field and is being widely use
d in many industrial manufacturing processes and also for desalination. Rec
ently its application in water and wastewater treatment systems is gaining
popularity in developed countries where in the effluent wastewater and pota
ble water standards are becoming more and more stringent. The recent develo
pments in microfiltration enable it to be competitive with other convention
al water treatment systems. This paper presents a design procedure for cros
sflow microfiltration (CFMF) incorporating a comprehensive flux improvement
technique. Also it gives an economical comparison with a conventional trea
tment system. The simulation results have shown that for small treatment pl
ants (similar to 4 ML/d) with medium turbidity water, having greater fracti
on of finer particles, the single-stage treatment with CFMF can be cheaper
than that of a conventional treatment system. The cost savings are found to
be between 6% and 12%; larger savings are for the influents with a greater
fraction of finer particles. Further, some of the advantages of the CFMF p
rocess over conventional water treatment systems are discussed. However, as
there are many assumptions involved in this study, further research is war
ranted to generalize the above conclusions.