A 'two-compartment' asymmetric electrochemical reactor, operating without electrodes polarity inversion, was designed and optimized for the chlorination of swimming pools. Gaseous chlorine, produced at the anode and absorbed in the alkalinized catholyte, provides the hypochlorite solution. Empiric equations providing the chloride concentration dependence on the initial current density magnitude were established. Experimental optimization of the effect of the various operating parameters allows a chloride conversion close to 50% with faradic yields higher than 80%, and a chlorine production of 1 kmol/day/m(2) to be achieved. Macroscopic mass balance, was performed and the obtained theoretical results correlate with the experimental ones (X-theor.Cl- - X-exper.Cl- < 10%). (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.