Hollow porous fibers containing adhered contaminants are cleaned to remove
the contaminants by backflushing a liquid to fill the pores, and adding a flow
of gas so as to form a two-phase mixture of gas and bubbles of liquid that can
scrub the fibers, loosening the contaminants and allowing them to be flushed from
the hollow fibers. The method is particularly useful for cleaning hemodialyzers
used for dialysis and hollow fiber modules used in water treatment and separations.
The two phase flow method is specifically effective in cleaning piping systems
having high length to diameter (l/d) ratios.