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.