Ozone (O3) has been commonly used in drinking water treatment. However, if the source water contains bromide (Br-), the application of O3 may be largely restricted due to the formation of bromate (BrO3-), a potential carcinogenic and nephrotoxic compound. Present studies about BrO3- formation control are mostly conducted in laboratory scale. The previous study of our reseach team has demonstrated that heterogeneous catalytic ozonation could effectively inhibit BrO3- formation, and meanwhile, achieved high efficiencies for dissolved organic matter (DOM) removal and bacteria inactivation. In this study, a novel granular cerium-doped molecular sieve (Ce-MCM-48) was synthesized and characterized. The inhibition efficiency of BrO3- formation during ozonation with this granular catalyst was investigated at pilot-scale under simulated practical conditions by varying the initial bromide Br- concentration, aqueous O3 concentration, total organic carbon (TOC) content, water pH, and hydraulic retention time (HRT). The efficiencies for TOC removal and Escherichia coli inactivation by catalytic ozonation were also examined. Results indicate that the inhibition efficiency of Ce-MCM-48 for BrO3- formation could reach 82-90% as the initial Br- concentration varied from 200 to 800 mg/L under typical water treatment conditions: [O3]o = 2.0 ± 0.1 mg/L, HRT = 10 min, pH = 7.7–7.9, T = 18 ± 2 °C. This catalyst could maintain an inhibition efficiency of > 85% even at a high aqueous O3 concentration (i.e., 3.5 mg/L), and the variations of initial TOC concentration (2.5–8.5 mg/L), pH (6.0–9.0), and HRT (10–20 min) had insignificant influence on the inhibition efficiency of BrO3- formation. Compared with ozonation alone, the catalytic ozonation with Ce-MCM-48 could achieve almost the same efficiencies for TOC removal and Escherichia coli inactivation. A long-term continuous experiment was operated for about one month at an intial Br- concentration of 200 ± 20 mg/L and an aqueous ozone concentration of 2.0 ± 0.1 mg/L. for one month Results indicate that the effluent BrO3- concnetration was always below 10 mg/L (average inhibition efficiency = 75.1%), which met the requirement of the Chinese Standards for Drinking Water Quality (GB 5749-2006). The mechanism study showed that that the granular Ce-MCM-48 had little adsorption of BrO3-, Br- and HOBr. Compared with ozonation alone, catalytic ozonation accelerated the decomposition of aqueous ozone to hydroxyl radical (•OH), and thus inhibited the oxidation of Br- to OBr- by molecular ozone. As a result, the formation of BrO3- was terminated at the intial reaction stage. Although the catalytic ozonation generated more •OH and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), thecontribution of the two generated secondary oxidants to BrO3- formation was relatively insignificant (< 10%). Finally, economic assessment was performed regarding the practical application of the catalytic ozonation process (O3/Ce-MCM-48) for inhibiting BrO3- formation. Results indicate that the catalyst possesses not only a high inhibition efficiency but also a large treatment capacity (i.e., 2.4 m3 water/kg catalyst). In addition, the equipments installation and operation costs are relatively low. The total treatment cost is estimated to be 0.09–0.14 yuan/L, thus has promising applications to bottled water production industry.