We consider one-dimensional stationary position-dependent effective mass quantum model and derive a generalized Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation in (1 + 1) dimension through Lax pair formulation, one being the effective mass Schrödinger operator and the other being the time-evolution of wave functions. We obtain an infinite number of conserved quantities for the generated nonlinear equation and explicitly show that the new generalized KdV equation is an integrable system. Inverse scattering transform method is applied to obtain general solution of the nonlinear equation, and then N-soliton solution is derived for reflectionless potentials. Finally, a special choice has been made for the variable mass function to get massdeformed soliton solution. The influence of position and time-dependence of mass and also of the different representations of kinetic energy operator on the nature of such solitons is investigated in detail. The remarkable features of such solitons are demonstrated in several interesting figures and are contrasted with the conventional KdV-soliton associated with constant-mass quantum model. C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4900895]In this equation T EM (x) is the EM kinetic energy operator and ψ(x) is known as envelope wavefunction. Due to the non-commutativity of momentum operator p ≡ − i ∂ x and the effective mass operator m(x), an infinite number of representation is possible for the kinetic energy operator. It is well-known that a hermitian form is induced by a general two-parameter family 37(1.2)Note that the form (1.2) is not the most general form. Other non-hermitian forms exist. However, to the best of our knowledge, it is the general form among hermitian family. It has to be mentioned that although different possible representations are covered in (1.2), some special forms attract much a) Electronic addresses: