A pilot-scale study was performed to assess variations of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane water permeance (A) and salt retention (R-obs) induced by chlorination and to compare them with those observed at the lab-scale. A chlorination protocol was adapted to expose only the surface active layer (an aromatic polyamide) of a composite RO membrane to consecutive free chlorine doses ranging from 40 to 4000 ppm h, at pH 6.9. Along the long-term filtration of seawater, performed with a 4" spiral wound RO module, we monitored the variations of A, the decrease of R-obs and the rate of increase of A with time, and found them quantitatively similar to those reported in previous studies performed at the lab-scale under accelerated exposure conditions. The elemental analysis of the feed and permeate streams revealed that the rejection of divalent ions remained constant (ca. 100%), irrespective of the free chlorine dose reached, whereas the rejection of monovalent ions of the seawater (mainly sodium, chloride and bromide ions) decreased as the exposure dose increased. Overall, transposing the characterization procedure to the pilot-scale further supports that chlorination of PA, under pH conditions usually found in desalination plants (6.9 to 8.0), is controlled by the concentration of HOCl as observed from elemental analysis of the surface by XPS. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.