In-house manufactured tubular ceramic supports prepared by centrifugal casting have a smooth inside surface and are ideal for thin defect-free coatings. The aim of this study was to directly coat a thin defect-free titania membrane in the anatase crystal structure on a ceramic support. The membrane preparation was successful. By means of XRD it was confirmed that the continuous and defect-free titania top-layer (thickness =1.5-1.6 mu m) was in the anatase crystal structure. According to the gas (N-2 and He) and water fluxes, as well as the alcohol retention experiments the composite membrane was characterized as a nanofiltration membrane. An average ideal selectivity of 2.64 was obtained for the gas permeation study of NZ and He. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.