The aim of this work was to evaluate the separation of cerium ions from dilute cerium feed solution by nanofiltration and to study the performance of commercial NF-300 membrane to accomplish an effective cerium removal at various operating conditions. The feed and permeates were analyzed for solute concentration by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Experimental results indicated that the rejection of cerium ions increases with increase in applied pressure (2-10 bar) and decreases with increase in feed concentrations (10-80 mg/L of CeCl3) at constant cross flow rate. Cerium rejection by nanofiltration assisted by complexation with ethylene diamine tetra aceticacid (EDTA) as chelating agent, was markedly influenced by pH (2-10), where higher degree of cerium removal was achieved for basic medium than that in acidic medium. The maximum observed rejection of Ce(III) was found to be 94.37% and 90.03% for an initial feed concentration of 10 and 80 mg/L, respectively. It was also observed that Ce rejection by NF assisted with EDTA complexation changed from 11% (2 pH) to 99% (8-12 pH). (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.